Shaun Rein at a brick-and-mortar place
If at any place the switch from brick-and-mortar is going fast, it is China. Permanent online consumers comment, exchange information, and buy 24/7. When you sit down in a restaurant, you first ask the code for the free wifi, before the menu. When you travel abroad, you constantly discuss with friends and family back home, on what to buy, or what not to buy.
Also the speakers at the China Speakers Bureau are following that trend. When you are a lawyer, you study e-commerce. When you focus on the wealthy, you also study their e-commerce habits. When you are in logistics, you are in e-commerce. When you are in finance, you have to know about e-commerce.
A section of our speakers at the China Speakers Bureau is more heavily involved in e-commerce. But if you do not find what you need on this list, do get in touch and we can add more alternatives to this list, or check out our latest stories here.
William Bao Bean
William Bao Bean is Investment Partner at SOS Ventures and Managing Director of Chinaccelerator, the first and longest running startup accelerator program in China based out of Shanghai. Before that is was VC at Singtel. His focus is firmly on mobile startup, and their efforts to serve China´s consumers in making their online life easier.
Next task is getting the mobile innovation that have been tried and tested in China ready for a more international audience.
In a previous life William was managing director a Singtel Innov8, partner at Softbank China&India Holdings and financial analyst at the Deutsche Bank.
You can read some of his articles here.
Mark Schaub
Lawyer Mark Schaub is partner at China and Asia´s largest law firm at King&Wood and Mallesons, and involved in almost all international transactions of his firm.
As a lawyer he had extensive experience in negotiating deals, firing people and otherwise dealing with the ignorance of companies entering the Chinese business minefield.
Mark Schaub has 15 years of legal experience in China and was the first foreign lawyer to enter a Chinese law firm.
Until recently he has been skeptic about the size of China´s outbound investments, but he finds himself more often outside China, to negotiate such deals.
Ben Cavender
Ben Cavender is a senior analyst with The China Market Research Group (CMR) focusing on strategic planning and brand positioning. Next to his boss, Shaun Rein, he has become one of the leading voices of his firm.
His focus on retail has also made him into an e-commerce expert. No brand, no product in China can nowadays survive without also a solid online marketing strategy,
You can read some of the articles who quote Ben here.
Andy Mok
Business consultant Andy Mok is an expert speaker on China´s outbound investments and especially China´s One Road, One Road investment plans.
He was one of the first investment professionals to join Morningside Ventures in the early 1990s, where he helped formulate the group’s investment strategy and played a key role in the post-investment management of portfolio companies in health care, media and education.
Subsequently, he joined the RAND Corp where, under the leadership of Zalmay Khalilzad (former US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the UN), he helped research and publish the influential and widely cited “The United States and a Rising China: Strategic and Military Implications.”
James Roy
James Roy, Associate Principal at the China Market Research Group (CMR)
James specializes in helping retailers and consumer goods companies understand consumer behavior in China and develop effective strategies to succeed in the world’s most promising retail market, in China of course including e-commerce. He has worked with retail clients including KFC, Hugo Boss, Shanghai Tang, Chloe, MCM, Ashley Furniture, and Groupe Adeo.
You can read some of James´stories here.
Tom Doctoroff
Tom Doctoroff is the leading authority on marketing in China. His successful book Billions: Selling to the New Chinese Consumer has founds its way to the shelves of almost every company working in China. Mr. Doctoroff switches in his speeches easily from a hand-on approach to a higher level, and prevents any confusion by telling again many real life stories from the dynamic marketing scene in China.
In a very visual style, loaded with telling examples Mr. Doctoroff tells the compelling story of China’s emerging consuming middle class. His humor and dynamics makes his subjects attractive for highly diverse audiences.
in his latest book, Twitter is Not a Strategy: Rediscovering the Art of Brand Marketing
Tom Doctoroff starts to bridge the abyss between traditional branding and digital marketing.
You can read more of Tom Doctoroff´s stories here.
Kaiser Kuo
Kaiser Kuo was until May 2016 Beijing-based, American-born writer, rock musician, technology watcher and cultural commentator. In June 2010 he became director international communication at China’s largest search engine, Baidu.com. Baidu was the first Chinese company to become part of the NASDAQ-100 index.
In 2016 he returned to Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
In 2007, he joined the leading advertising agency Ogilvy as their director of digital strategy, but left in early 2009 to devote more time to writing and to his advisory work for several Chinese Internet startups. Before joining Ogilvy, had worked extensively in China’s booming Internet and mobile sectors. As an opinion leader in his industry, Mr. Kuo worked at the famous magazine Red Herring, as their Beijing bureau chief, but his activities have not been limited to that leading publication.
You can read some of his stories here.
Shaun Rein
Shaun Rein, managing director of the China Market Research Group (CMR)
Shaun Rein is one of the world’s recognized thought leaders on strategy consulting in China. His bookThe End of Cheap China, Revised and Updated: Economic and Cultural Trends That Will Disrupt the World, published in 2012, solidified his reputation of challenging established classic ways to frame China.
He is a regular commentator on Bloomberg TV, The Wall Street Journal and other mainstream media.
At the end of 2014 he will published his latest bookThe End of Copycat China: The Rise of Creativity, Innovation, and Individualism in Asia. In that book he explains how China from a copy-and-past culture is now developing into one of the world´s leading innovators.
You can read about Shaun Rein´s recent activities here.
Wei Gu
Wei Gu is the former China Wealth and Luxury editor for the Wall Street Journal and since September 2016 working as an independent journalist from Shanghai. She interviews leading voices in China´s luxury industry and writes regularly columns on the latest developments in the industry. E-commerce has become one of the focal points to get into the China market, and Wei Gu addresses the online challenges for China-related businesses regularly.
She wrote until 2013 commentary about China’s economy and finance for Reuters Breakingviews. Wei was one of Reuters’ first columnists, initiated the product for Reuters Chinese News in 2005.
You can see some of Wei Gu´s video´s here
