The Negotiation

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      China’s football landscape ●      Why football has a more active fanbase than basketball in China ●      Grassroots football in China ●      How prioritization of education over almost all else impacts sport culture in China ●      The biggest football teams in China and their dynamic with fans ●      Chinese football and the Chinese government ●      Where...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      China’s consumer PC market in the early-to-mid-90s ●      Why many companies struggled in the 90s while Intel thrived ●      Building the Chinese social networking app Guanxi in the early-2010s ●      Co-founding mInfo, the official mobile search provider to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 ●      What internet marketing looked like 20 years ago and the impact o...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      Major trends across China eCommerce and consumer behavior in the past year ●      Categories that are doing really well in China today ●      Non-traditional categories that are on the way up ●      The younger generation’s move “back to basics” and “materialism fatigue” ●      Finding the keys to finding purchase motivation amid China’s “post-consumer high”...

This episode is a look back at all of our podcast guests and the topics we covered in 2020, putting together some of our favorite moments for you into one single episode of goodness. The guests featured in this special episode are: Matt Sheehan, episode #75 John Pomfret, episode #78 Anne Stephensn-Yang, episode #82 James McGregor, episode #83 Chloé Goncalves, episode #85 Charles Lavoie, episode #9...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      Snowsports culture in China versus Japan ●      Consumers in China’s snowsports industry versus the West’s ●      How Burton markets and localizes snowsports in China ●      Marketing snowsports as a lifestyle in China ●      The evolution of retail in China and how Burton has adapted ●      How to set goals and strategize for a market entry into China ●   ...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      Contemporary China through the lens of fashion and culture ●      The new thinking around fashion and individuality among China’s younger generations ●      China’s fashion scene today and how it differs from that of New York ●      Does China have fashion icons? ●      China’s urban underground scene ●      The future of fashion in China   Episode Summary:...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      The story behind Control Risks and how it expanded to other markets ●      Defining “political risk” and its relevance to businesses in China ●      Does the government move as fast as the economy and how do businesses adapt to changes in China’s regulatory landscape? ●      How to do due diligence in China versus other North Asian markets ●      How should...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      How Singles’ Day performed relative to Jacob’s expectations ●      Platforms that will gain traction at next year’s 11.11 ●      Notable creative or marketing tactics used at this year’s festival ●      How this year’s GMV may compare to 2020s ●      Whether there is still room for foreign brands going forward ●      What to know about Pipl (Personal Informa...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      Launching Founders Space in China ●      Why Steve wrote Make Elephants Fly ●      China’s unique (and commonly misrepresented) approach to innovation ●      Mentoring Chinese vs Western entrepreneurs ●      How evolving family dynamics and the Westernization of much of today’s Chinese youth influences the country’s perception towards entrepreneurship as a c...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      Problems that Axis aims to solve ●      How Axis helps to develop resorts ●      How is China preparing for the 2022 Winter Olympics ●      How Axis is preparing for the 2022 Winter Olympics ●      Snowsports culture and the hospitality industry in China today ●      What Chinese consumers have taught Justin and the Axis team ●      Building ski resorts in C...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      Trends that shaped consumer behaviour in 2021 ●      How different categories have fared over the past year ●      How consumer trends have evolved in the past 18 months ●      Sectors to lead the charge in China’s economic growth going forward ●      Which categories are predicted to be successful on Singles’ Day ●      New tactics brands will use aside fro...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      The focus of the China Institute ●      How the Canada-China relationship has evolved since the 1950s ●      How China and Canada may recover from their strained relationship that reached a low point in December 2018 ●      How the relationship between Canada and China may look ten years from now ●      What lessons can Canada and other Western countries lea...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      How Freddie is working with Burton Snowboards to create a network of snowboard academies in China ●      How technology is being used to improve and scale snowboarding in China ●      Will snow sports in China see more international instructors becoming involved in the future? ●      The rise of four seasons resorts in China, and considerations around operat...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      Running snowsports schools in China compared to the West ●      Chinese parent-child dynamics at snow sports schools and how instructors can manage expectations ●      The economics of lift passes, equipment, logistics, and instruction in the world of snow sport in China ●      Removing the cost barrier that continues to prevent many Chinese from accessing s...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      Trends taking place in China that may soon quickly spread to the rest of the world ●      Why offline retail continues to prevail in the West ●      How views toward entrepreneurship and working in the tech industry have evolved over the past decade in China ●      Emerging Chinese tech companies to keep an eye on ●      Why lookism has become “rampant in Ch...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      Rui speaks on her work with the Tech Buzz China podcast and community ●      How accurate is the data we are getting today from the fundraising world in China? ●      What is it like to do due diligence on Chinese tech companies looking for investors? ●      Rui describes the trip she conducted in 2019 to bring foreign investors into China ●      Trends in C...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      How changes in China’s economy and business landscape over the last four years influenced John’s work ●      Challenges faced by foreign versus local Chinese startup entrepreneurs ●      Potential advantages for foreign startup owners in China ●      Changes in the education space in China ●      The evolution KOLs and influencer marketing in China ●      Pr...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      How Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) have evolved over the past five years ●      Co-founding one of China’s top-ranking beauty KOLs, Melilim Fu ●      The team behind Melilim Fu, and how KOLs are typically managed ●      KOLs versus Key Opinion Consumers (KOCs) versus micro-influencers ●      Launchmetrics and the problems they aim to solve in today’s marketplace...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      How has merchandising transformed in the age of eCommerce? ●      Justice’s typical day as Director of Merchandising at WPIC ●      Examples of companies that exemplify effective online merchandising ●      Why it is so difficult to master online merchandising ●      Global merchandising trends, specifically focusing on trends in China ●      The future of m...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      The economic, cultural, and athletic impact that the 2008 Beijing Olympics had on China ●      China’s reaction to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics ●      China’s expectations for the 2022 Winter Olympics and future games ●      Popular and not-as popular sports in China ●      The intersection of sports, politics, and business in China’s fitness industry ●      Chin...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      Working in the APAC market ●      The differences between UI, UX, and CX ●      What is “product-market fit” and how do you know if you’ve achieved it? ●      Why neglecting to build the right local team is one of the biggest mistakes a foreign company can make ●      Tools that Kaizor uses to collect and interpret data for clients ●      Defining the “fract...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      A description of the Shanghai startup scene today and how it compares to France’s and the U.S.’s ●      What it is like to be a foreign entrepreneur in China ●      How to know whether you should start your business in China ●      What most Westerners do not know about F&B in China ●      Why Shanghai is not representative of China as a whole ●      How...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      What exactly is “antitrust” and why is it so important in the relationship between business and government globally? ●      What has China’s relationship with antitrust been historically, and have the events of 2008 and 2013 affected antitrust enforcement? ●      The conversations around antitrust at a time when big tech companies both in the U.S. and China...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      What brands can do if they want to succeed in China among the millennial and Gen-Z cohort ●      Major events that have impacted Chinese millennials similar to the Great Recession in the U.S. ●      What are the differences between millennials who grew up in the Mainland and those who studied abroad? ●      How prevalent is conspicuous consumption in the lif...

Topics Discussed and Key Points: ●      Who are China’s millennials, and how do they differ from millennials in the Western world? ●      The downstream effects of the one-child policy on today’s market ●      The state of mental health among China’s youth ●      What employers expect from millennial hires   Episode Summary: Today on The Negotiation, we speak with Zak Dychtwald, Founder and CEO of...