Beijing, May 13, 2008 – China General Managers from leading global corporations including News Corp., Shell, Apple, and Tata joined Cheung Kong Dean Xiang Bing and faculty at an executive roundtable to discuss alliances with local partners and the evolving strategic role of China as both a supply base and a consumer market.
Discussions on how best to manage alliances, M&A strategies in China, and the ways in which corporations are adapting their corporate structures to more effectively leverage the China opportunity provided participating executives with a preview of content to be featured in the Cheung Kong China Country Manager Program to be launched this fall.
Cheung Kong Strategy Professor Zeng Ming, who is Senior Vice-President of Alibaba, noted that the Alibaba-Yahoo deal represents a new chapter in China-related M&A, where the global partner, Yahoo, folded its China operations into China partner Alibaba. In this new model, the CEO of Yahoo China has access to technology from Yahoo headquarters, yet reports directly to the CEO of China-based Alibaba rather than the Yahoo global CEO, thus localizing and speeding decision-making, a necessity for the fast-moving Internetbusiness.
Zeng also noted that multinational corporations such as IBM are preparing to split themselves into 2 companies, one focusing on developed markets and the other on emerging markets, with the latter to be headquartered in Shanghai.
When Cheung Kong Strategy Professor Teng Binsheng provided new analysis of the ongoing Danone-Wahaha dispute, one executive made the point that problematic relations between multinational corporations and local Chinese firms are quite common, but rarely discussed openly or brought to the public attention. “From a communications perspective, Danone could have done much more to build trust and avoid conflict,” suggested one executive.
Discussion among executive participants was moderated by Human Resources Professor Elizabeth Weldon, who heads English-language executive education programs for Cheung Kong GSB.
About the Cheung Kong Country Manager Program:
China is moving into a new phase of development where multinationals face new challenges in a more competitive environment. Recent policy adjustments are having major effects on patterns of economic growth and at the same time an exceptional group of local Chinese enterprises is rising up, actively competing with leading multinationals for market share and top personnel. The Cheung Kong China Country Manager Program is designed to help top managers in multinational corporations meet these emerging challenges.
About Cheung Kong GSB: Founded in Beijing in November 2002 by Asia’s most successful entrepreneur Mr. Li Ka-shing, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business is China’s first private, non-profit, and independent business school. Headquartered in Beijing with campuses in Shanghai and Guangzhou, Cheung Kong GSB offers MBA, EMBA, and Executive Development Programs