And we often hear that an idea that happens outside get

copied in China. So, do you think China are innovative,

or do you need creativity or innovative

to start a business in China?

Well, if you talk about copying

or plagiarism, actually it happens everywhere.

It's only that when most people think about, okay, just

developing products or hardware, tangible products, it

is much more easier to be plagiarised or copied in China

because the cost of manufacturing is pretty low. But,

of course, not everything is that low in terms of

manufacturing; whereas there's a lot of people, a lot of

products are being manufactured outside of China these days.

But in terms of the innovation, a lot of the mentorship

I told to … I talk to the companies themselves.

If it's that easy for people to copy you, it's … doesn't matter

whether in China or in Hong Kong or somewhere in US,

it happens everywhere. So, the strategic importance of

your company being able to plagiarise by someone else

is very critical. So, if you’re developing a hardware product,

don't just think about the product itself. You have

to think about not just the hardware but also the software

and the services and everything that links in behind it

Because that's pretty much where the uniqueness lies

in terms of how you are providing. Because everyone

is providing pretty much the same thing. If you talk about

products like drones these days… flying in the air,

so everyone makes the drones. So, certain companies make

the drones earlier. So, they may sell like 3000 RMB

or 6000 RMB per drone. But if you go to, like, online

shopping commerce platforms, you can actually buy, like,

small toys, like, for 20 RMB.

So, the technologies is

… catches up pretty fairly quickly. So, if you just

rely on just the technological breakthrough at this point

of a certain hardware, well, be prepared that by tomorrow

someone else will be developing something even much more

better and copying you overtime. So, my suggestions

normally, like, if you are developing a hardware, you

have to have something in behind that you’re developing

services, maybe there is a software, maybe there's

an app to link into your consumers or your customers

that they will feel that okay I'm not just using the hardware

but I'm also using a service behind just using

that hardware as a medium.

So, your advice is to build

up extra, like, competitive edge, not just the hardware

but software and service that around it.

Well, definitely

I’m not asking everyone to build a lot of things.

But when most people think about … especially products or

especially creative, much more creative people …

the artistic people, they will be tending to think about,

okay, I’m drawing a picture on a plate, I'm doing a

machine, I'm doing a robotics. And these are things that

are pretty easy to copy because people can just buy a

prototype or just buy something off from you and then

they just copy exactly the molding in it. But in terms of

the creativity or building a better robot, or designing

something different, or providing that service that were

probably certain of the designs cater to certain people

of your consumer groups, and those consumer groups, those

people, those customers are happy with how you are solving

their problems, that's pretty much the key to how

successful company should be. It is not just about the hardware

it's always about how the company or the CEO

of the business itself solve a certain group of people's problems

And if you can solve that, then people will

rely on you a lot more longer and give you … a little bit

more money. Just think about … it’s pretty much like a doctor.

You don't buy medicine if you don't go crazy.

If you have …if someone's got cancer, you don't just go

buy any medicine from a pharmaceuticals company

You'll ask to consult the doctor, a professional. So, as a company

a developing company … whether you’re just developing

a hardware or software or some much more professional

company, you have to be in all cases be much more

professional in your field and also be able to solve your

customers’ problems in a much more professional way.

And in what area you think China is leading in terms of,

like, technology development or service development?

I think China has a leading area where number 1 the state

is very supportive. So, the government is actually

very support of very innovative kind of industries and companies.

And, there is also and because of that, there

is a lot of people who will be following suit for that

in those areas. Just think about e-commerce before. Like

10 years or 15 years ago, when people are just beginning

to think about e-commerce, and then suddenly there is

a boom of e-commerce, state’s supporting in terms of

e-commerce and then more and more people go into the

e-commerce area and build much more better solutions and

much more better technology behind. So, there is a lot of

… the state helps in that area. There is also in terms of

the people themselves, in terms of the willingness

of how the local Chinese… the mainlander Chinese,

they are willing to actually say, okay, I'm going to a new

venture, I'm testing out a lot of things and if I believe

in this area which will be the next area. Take,

for example, drone industry, so they would dedicate a lot more

be a little bit more committed because of that

entrepreneurial spirit. They will be a little more committed

in terms of that area. Of course, there will be people

who will be looking at just money and say, okay,

if you don’t pay me enough salary, I'll be leaving.

But then again there are a lot of people who are thinking

because of that entrepreneur spirit, thinking about new things,

and they are thinking about new dreams to fulfil themselves

And if those dreams are matching in terms

of overseas company coming in, and if you can tap into

their intrinsic needs, you can actually have them to

help you a little bit more in terms of how they help you

develop that business, and help you be much more creative

in business. Because the creativity, actually it's all

over the world. Creativity - it’s just a matter of

whether you're finding the right person to work with you

or to partner with you in that particular industry.

So, as an entrepreneur from overseas going to China, I’d

suggest that don't just look into, like, normal kind of a

business if you’re doing entrepreneurship. You have to

be a little more creative - the entrepreneur spirit,

especially new companies coming in, unless you have a lot

of money investing in China which can mean a lot of money

especially in China because there are more than 600

cities in China. So, you do your picking.

You will have to convince the right people and say, okay, this is

something that's new, this is something that will be much

more able to develop, much more creativity in terms of

the industry. So and from there on, another way of enticing

or attracting, appealing to the creativity of your people is

say, that it is not just in China, but this

solution applies to everyone else outside the world.

Mr Desmond Marshall, Managing Director of Rouge International (www.RLSCLUB.com) and Rouge Ventures (www.RougeVC.com)

Entrepreneurship

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