Next Phase of Chinese Economic Miracle: How Must Multinationals Make Strategic Adjustments?
China has proven to the world that it is possible to pull millions of people out of poverty,
become a major global manufacturing hub and develop an innovation culture in the
span of just decades. This has prompted multinationals headquartered in the West - US, EU - and in the East - Japan, South Korea - to actively engage with China to both source manufactured products for the world and to serve the rapidly growing Chinese market. Indeed, in design of global strategies, understanding the dynamics of Chinese socioeconomic shifts (now the largest global economy on a PPP basis) is perhaps becoming increasingly the most significant requirement.
Given the rapid transformation of the country throughout the past four decades from an agrarian society to a significant force in the global knowledge economy, China has been in a continuous state of flux at an unprecedented speed along multiple dimensions:
- shifting consumer preferences for different socio-economic segments,
- deepening fragmentation of consumer aspirations and consumption instincts in different regions of China,
- increasing sophistication of local competition leading to rise of local brands,
- changing government regulations in response to trade wars and recent coronavirus related tensions, and in its pursuit of leadership role in emerging technologies and,
- accelerating attractiveness of domestic companies as desirable employers - limiting availability of talents for overseas companies.
Particularly, as Phase 1 of the new trade deal between the US and China is adopted and
the deals that might follow are framed, the local “playing field” will be further leveled;
it will in turn present significantly more opportunities for multinationals to deepen and
broaden their engagement within the Chinese socio-economic dynamic. Of course, the
competitive landscape will become even more intense and complex, in terms of
- how the contour of the playing field will change (?), and
- how the rules of the plays will become increasingly complex and fuzzy (?).