Author: markgreeven

The Chinese economy — much like the daily life in many regions in China — can be characterized by one word: Change. Fast-paced, constant change. It’s been going for decades. The first generation of today’s biggest entrepreneurs started in the 70ies. They excelled in adapting their business to a growing demand. The responders. The next generation of entrepreneurs were driven by the opportunities the internet and e-commerce brought. We are talking about the BAT: Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent. The Internet leaders. What is there left to do as a startup when faced with a market that is driven by a few seemingly omnipotent players? The answer is disruption. The 3rd generation of Chinese entrepreneurs have emerged over the last 5–8 years. The Change Makers.

Read more: Medium

Barely a decade after the global financial crisis, China’s economy is shedding its “factory of the world” past and embracing an innovative future built on a business ecosystem supported by rising companies such as Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and Xiaomi and more than 1,000 new venture investments by the country’s nouveaux riches. Its ecosystem has put China on pace to become a global leader in electric and driverless cars within 10 years. It is also on track to become a leading Artificial Intelligence developer. The business ecosystems of Chinese companies differ sharply from those of US juggernauts such as Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, according to Greeven, whose book came out in September. In the US, one company usually creates a platform which outside companies either plug into or use. In China, an outside company does not plug in, but becomes part of the business as one of hundreds of players in an ecosystem.

Read more: South China Morning Post

Where would you expect to find the world’s most innovative talent development program or a meld of big data and artificial intelligence
together predicting employee resignations with 95% accuracy? Your answer probably would not be China, but think again. While dreadful personnel management practices, as well as dangerous labor abuses, can still be found in the country, it would be a pity to ignore the innovation going on. Chinese companies have been the quickest to adopt new technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence and talent analytics. Their innovative human resources practices can bring a fresh perspective from one of the world’s most dynamic markets.

Read more: Nikkei Asian Review

In the last decades China has been building the foundations to become a modern and prosperous society. However, as suggested by President Xi Jinping in the 19th Party Congress, the rise of China depends on continued efforts in reducing income inequality and job creation. In my opinion it is good news that President Xi also addressed the importance of a world class talent development system to support China’s future. As an educator I look forward to continuous efforts in reforming and improving education for all in China.

Read more: China Daily

Find out how Chinese tech giant Alibaba and its peers Baidu, Tencent and Xiaomi are giving Amazon and Google a run for their money. Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple (Gafa) may still be the world’s largest technology companies, but a new generation of contenders is coming from the East. The Chinese giants are consistently on the MIT Technology Review’s list of smartest companies in the world. While Chinese enterprises were long written off as copycats, this has now become a bad joke. Gafa needs to be aware of BATX’s boundaryless business approach, leveraging a new way of organising and exploiting the benefits of both strategic planning and entrepreneurial decision-making.

Read more: The Telegraph

Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple (‘GAFA’) may still be the world’s largest technology companies, but a new generation of technology contenders is coming from the East. Alibaba and its peers Baidu, Tencent and Xiaomi (popularly termed ‘BATX’ in China), not only lead but also create and disrupt markets. With a combined market capitalization of about $900 billion, incubating over 1,000 new ventures within a decade and an average annual growth of over 50 percent, they are showing their unprecedented growth and relentless ambition to the world. Did you know that Tencent’s WeChat has over 1 billion users worldwide? Xiaomi bested Apple in the Chinese market, just 4 years after establishment. Baidu is one of the big boys in artificial intelligence (AI), not less than Google and Microsoft. GAFA needs to be aware of the rise of BATX.

Read more: Financial Times (Chinese) China Daily

The first response from my academic colleagues in The Netherlands when I announced I would study innovation in China in 2004 was, “That must be a short project!” Today the world is embracing China as an innovation nation, one where residents have a “ringside seat to entrepreneurial development”, according to Thinkers50. Facilitating the talent development of hundreds of elite students and next generation change-makers is my passion. Receiving multinationals eager to study new technologies and business models but also delegations from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors is my contribution to building bridges — who could have thought that 13 years ago?

Read more: China Daily

August 2017 Thinkers of the Month – A Dutch academic based in Hangzhou, China with a ringside seat on fast evolving developments in Chinese management and leadership, Mark Greeven is an associate professor at Zhejiang University’s School of Management. In addition, he is a research fellow at China’s National Institute for Innovation Management. Says Greeven: “Innovation does not come from guidelines or subsidies; it comes from creativity, entrepreneurial spirit and experimentation with allowance of mistakes and failures.”

Mark is on the 2017 Thinkers50 Radar list of 30 next generation business gurus and shortlisted for the 2017 Thinkers50 Radar Award.

Read more: Thinkers50 Q&A

After successfully hosting the G20 in 2016, China’s participation in the G20 in Hamburg this year may prove an important next step to further integrate and lead important global developments. As former US vice-minister for energy Professor Terrance Sandalow vividly expressed during his Beijing trip last year, China is now holding a mirror to the rest of the world. China’s vision for an emerging world order may be less fiction and soon more reality.

Read more: China Daily

You would think that the Netherlands as a biking nation is leading in smart biking technology. In many ways that is indeed the case but in one area the Netherlands is behind: bike sharing. In Chinese cities we can see the colourful shared bikes everywhere on the streets, predominantly driven by the widespread popularity of mobile payment solutions like Alipay and WeChat Pay.

Read more (in Dutch): Elsevier