Chair, Sergeant Andrea Sampson had great pleasure in introducing her former student, Bradley Maclean, son of Rotarian Doug and Marcelle Maclean, and his wife Lara Wang.
Brad is Managing Director - Asia at Link Resources International Consulting Group, based at Guangzhou, China, and Lara is a Director of the company. He first went to China as a teacher of English.
Scribe’s Background Information Relating To China and Brad’s Presentation
China is without doubt the greatest economic success story of the past 30 years with the country changing beyond recognition. A classic communist planned economy has been transformed into a vibrant market-oriented one.
China is the largest global producer of toys, textiles, washing machines, cameras and computers, and it seems most other things. It's also the world’s largest consumer of iron, steel, coal and cement, and China’s hunger for raw materials has underpinned our own economic strength. Over a million enterprises have flourished, and nearly 40 Chinese companies have entered the Global Fortune 500 list of top companies.
With such rapid and continuous industrialisation and urbanisation, a
vast, fast-growing Chinese consumer market has emerged, devouring thirteen million
cars (now the largest car market in the world), international labels and luxury goods. China is also the world’s largest IT market, with over 600 million mobile users and more than 400 million internet users. China is rapidly creeping up on USA in its numbers of millionaires and billionaires.
While many of the world’s major economies are still struggling to recover from the Global Financial Crisis, China’s economy grew by 9.2% in 2011, down from 10.3% in 2010, and this economic slowdown continued in 2012, to around 8.0%. This is partly due to suppressed demand in China’s largest export markets (Europe, USA) but also to tightening of monetary policy in late 2011. The Chinese government has subsequently begun loosening monetary policy and launched a major investment programme to ensure growth does not slip below the official “target rate” of 7.5.
The Government is pressing hard to improve infrastructure and social welfare as well as targeting resources to develop China’s vast rural and interior regions, aiming to unleash domestic consumption among the wider population. Industrial centres are shifting inland with dozens of new cities emerging and coastal areas developing into sophisticated urban clusters. Women are playing a key role in the economy and Brad and Lara’s company, Link Resources has a 90% female workforce.
Brad’s Presentation
The many changes outlined above have opened unique opportunities for business development and consultancy businesses that can link China to the outside world.
Link Resources International Consulting Group (LRI) is a management consulting firm advising leading companies on issues of strategy, organization, technology, and operations. The company provides branding, marketing, advertising, public relation, performance appraisal, and strategy consulting services. The company’s clientele include Coca Cola Co., Citigroup, and General Electric.
It assists Chinese companies to enter world markets, and foreign companies to enter China. A key role is to provide links between universities and the business world of work.
Skills and expertise provided to clients and trainees include banking, risk management, new business development, provision of financial services, business strategies, business analysis and accessing capital markets.
Brad and Lara are committed to helping companies improve both their people and their processes; when our consultants come to work each day, it is to develop and implement ideas with impact - innovative ideas that will enable business leaders to envision change and realize extraordinary results.
China still faces many challenges in both the economic and social arenas. Demands for higher and higher wages lead to very high staff turnover rates, soaring housing prices and there is need for the provision of government mandated employee training programs. Simmering tensions with Japan are a constant worry, and massive pollution are key issues. Massive inequalities still exist, mostly between urban and rural folk, and the complex nature of Chinese culture remains a challenge for westerners keen to do business there.
Chairman Andrea thanked Brad for a fascinating presentation and wished him and Lara every success in the future.
Q. What do you get if you cross the English cricket team with an OXO cube?