Is it a plant? Is it a bird-nest? No. It's Spiderman (with a wide net to capture customers)...
There was certainly no sign of any recession at the 61st PharmChina Expo with reportedly over 100,000 buyers elbowing each other just trying to get in.
By the end of the opening day, the 'carpet' of discarded marketing leaflets on the floor was so thick that show-goers would trip if they did not exercise caution when walking...
But China may be risking a different type of meltdown that is largely invisible to the outside world (think 'volcano'...)

M y fellow China-marketeers:

First I want to apologize for any inconvenience that might have been caused by the infiltration of a virus in our system. (Tech support assured us that with the new setting in place it should not happen again...)

Yet the "attack" was perhaps not all negative; After all, it kind of forced us to break our 'radio silence' - If you ever wondered what we had been up to, I must say we have been busy reinventing ourselves. In fact, we have been busy selling to China.

Did you know that the "heart" of the Chinese stimulus plan is to boost domestic consumption, so anything that can help achieve that goal, be it tangible (i.e., product offerings) or intangible (e.g. knowledge and know-how), shall theoretically be in great demand in China?

We see Chinese businesses becoming increasingly READY (please see "China in Acquisition Mode"), WILLING (politically motivated) and ABLE (foreign reserves rich) to buy American/Western products.and services, too, if properly "packaged".

Many Chinese bosses are eager to "bottom-fish" in the US for a variety of "depressed assets" -- products, brands, properties, talent, or whole businesses.

With much of their 'toxic' competition washed away by the recent waves of factory closings, those manufacturers that have been doing things right and are thus still around are likely being rewarded with increased business.

Now that many of their old advantages such as low-cost labor have evaporated, going forward they will likely start focusing more on such issues as automation, "6-sigma" and "lean", as did their Japanese counterparts decades ago.

Little wonder that it is often easier nowadays for a Chinese manufacturer to get bank loans to import equipment than to export products.

Please come to our roundtables to learn more about these opportunities. And better yet, please join our upcoming matchmaking trip to tap into them.