China Clinic for CEOs - February 9, 2008

Clinic Overview

Globalization of the world economy and China’s development impacts on businesses, no matter where they compete. Companies that claim to be domestic only, operate in an environment influenced by the ‘China price’. This is the backdrop for China-based and -linked businesses: how to develop and prosper via the international dimension. But, the task of building strong companies and effectively integrating them into the global marketplace is a difficult, complex undertaking. To distinguish their companies from the competition, CEOs need to maximize their potential for coping with the changing environment conditioned by China, managing across business disciplines and country borders, as well as providing the essential leadership to do so.

By enabling participants to broaden their knowledge of business development in China, the China Clinic for CEOs (CCC) will enhance the strategic and leadership skills of CEOs to better take account of China. They will leave the program with a new level of preparedness to face the challenges and to capitalize on the opportunities China offers.

Clinic Objectives

The CCC offers an unparalleled opportunity for CEOs to gain new insights with respect to the factors that shape risk and determine success. Through in-depth examination of critical issues, business developments, and emerging trends, participants will learn what is required of them and their organizations to meet the China challenge.

Specifically, the program enhances the capacity of participants to:

• Respond to the challenges offered by China
• Formulate and implement China strategies for creating competitive advantage and stakeholder value
• Lead their organizations on this journey.

Focus of this Third Clinic

The methodologies employed by many foreign companies to ensure the integrity of their intellectual property rights (IPRs) are seriously flawed. IP damage is often self-inflicted by the failure of foreign companies to take adequate measures to protect their IPRs so they remain unnecessarily susceptible to IP theft and the ensuing prospects of legal process.  We will introduce the BARD framework for IPR protection. 

BARD is based on in depth research, conducted in China, over the last two years with IP owners, IP lawyers, IP consulting firms, Advertising agencies, branding consultants and those that track down IP infringers.

Clinic Participants

The CCC is developed mainly for CEOs and other senior officers who have more than 10 years' experience in senior management within small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This restricted learning opportunity also is appropriate for tested general managers and veteran directors of corporate boards. Our goal is to assemble a group of top executives and business leaders who represent a variety of companies and industries, have an established track record for leading and implementing, and exhibit high potential for contributing to the CCC.

Curriculum

The CCC is designed to prepare CEOs to maximize response to the China challenge. The curriculum explores from a CEO's perspective strategic, government, investment, market, and other trends in China:

• China business environment
• Intellectual property issues
• Chinese consumers and behavior
• Location decisions: East vs. West
• Guanxi strategy
• Investment climate
• Playing off provincial governments
• China’s corporate players: destined for greatness?
• China’s Internal Barriers and overcoming them
• Implementation Strategies
• Individual consultations with the faculty.

Our Team

David McHardy Reid PhD is Thomas F. Gleed Chair Professor of Business Administration at Seattle University. He has over two decades of China experience. An international business expert, he is a visiting professor at ESCP-EAP in Paris and Strathclyde University in Glasgow, Scotland. From 2000 to September this year he was Director of the Center for International Business at RIT in Rochester New York. For five years prior to October 2000 he held the Malayan United Industries Chair of International Business at Curtin University-the largest business school in Australia and the decade prior to that he was based in Hong Kong. He has published around 100 papers and three books: two for The Economist on Japan and Thailand and one for the Financial Times on Korea, as well as articles in management journals, mainly on international strategy. In the last decade and a half Dr Reid has been researching the strategies of foreign companies in Asia, and has met with and interviewed over 400 CEO's and other senior officers in: Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Burma including over 100 recently interviewed in China. For several years, prior to relocating to Seattle he held a board appointment of an engineering company and influenced its market entry strategy into China. At the beginning of 2006 he was appointed as a consultant to SHIFF (Shanghai International Fashion Federation). In mid-2006 he was invited by the First Minister of Scotland to become a consultant in the GlobalScot network of support to Scottish companies developing international market positions.

Robert A. Kapp PhD is president of Robert A. Kapp & Associates, Inc., Port Townsend, Washington (www.rakapp.com).  The firm provides consulting services to companies pursuing business development with, and in, the People’s Republic of China.
From April 1994 to November 2004, Dr. Kapp served as president of The US-China Business Council.

Founded in 1973, the Council is the principal organization of American companies and industries engaged in trade and investment with China, and is supported by several hundred leading U.S. corporations and firms.  In addition to guiding the business services, publications, and program activities of the US-China Business Council through its Washington, DC headquarters and its Beijing and Shanghai representative offices,

Dr. Kapp contributed regularly to informed U.S. dialogue on China, through Congressional testimony, published articles, frequent media appearances, and presentations to educational and community organizations nationwide.  He has been widely recognized in the United States and China as a leader in the effort to sustain strong, mutually respectful relations between the two nations.

From 1979 to 1987 he was the founding executive director of the Washington State China Relations Council, and from 1987 to 1994 he served as president of the Washington Council on International Trade, a trade information and education association primarily concerned with trade policy issues.

 Schedule

Where: Albers School of Business and Economics, Seattle University

When: February 9, 2008, 11 am until 5 pm

Cost: $25 (includes lunch and coffee service)

RSVP: mandet@seattleu.edu