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BIZCHINA / Biz Who
Build local, think global
(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-07 10:16
Zhang Xin and her husband Pan Shiyi?
Zhang Xin, born in China and educated in the UK, used to work on Wall
Street before she and her husband Pan Shiyi founded SOHO China 12 years
ago. The company has grown into one of the largest commercial property
developers in Beijing. The couple have become the most high-profile
property celebrities in China with their innovative ideas on property
development and international vision.
Zhang,?chief executive officer?of SOHO China and a Young Global Leader
(YGL), shares her views on innovation, the entrepreneurial spirit of the
Chinese and YGL, with China Daily reporter Liu Baijia before the opening
of the YGL summit in Dalian.
Q: How does the Global Young Leader (YGL) title help you and your company?
A: YGL is part of the World Economic Forum, but it has its own
characteristics too. First of all, Young Global Leaders are usually young
and their backgrounds are also highly diversified.
Some are businesspeople, some politicians, some working at non-profit or
non-government organizations, and others professionals. It is very
exciting to be with such a diversified group of young people.
At an ordinary economic conference, participants are usually from similar
circles, but the YGL summit has much more diversity and these people are
ambitious and actively working to make the world a better place. So we
brainstorm on many different topics such as terrorism and economics.
Q: What are your views on the entrepreneurial spirit of Chinese
businesspeople?
A: Chinese entrepreneurs are mostly very young and belong to the YGL age
group. China's market economy is also very young and has a lot of
vitality, unlike mature economies.
Entrepreneurial spirit in China is especially strong because China has a
fast-growing economy and entrepreneurs keep looking for new
opportunities, so they are particularly alert and demands for innovations
are especially strong.
Innovation is not only invention. For Chinese enterprises, it's more
important to have innovations in their business models and management.
In China, most developers on the mainland focus on housing projects and
rarely do commercial development because they think that is the territory
of Hong Kong developers.
But Hong Kong developers have a Hong Kong model: they find, build the
property and lease the space. In leasing, famous brands like Louis
Vuitton are key to bringing more tenants, so developers usually charge
these brands very little or even give them the space for free.
But this model does not suit developers on the mainland, so SOHO has its
own model: we build our projects, sell to customers and then help them
lease the properties. In China, only a few actually buy luxury items,
most frequent commercial areas to eat and drink and to have fun.
Q: How do you see the possibility of Chinese entrepreneurs assuming
global leadership?
A: Global leadership is firstly about vision, followed by efforts and
opportunity.
Most Chinese entrepreneurs are around 40 and some of them may become
global leaders in different areas, but I do not know how many. More
importantly, most of them are concerned more about how to grow their
businesses rather than how to become global leaders.
The way to globalization may not be what we are seeing in some companies:
buying enterprises overseas.
There are more failures than successes down this road. We shall not think
like the Japanese decades ago and say we are rich and we can buy foreign
enterprises and turn them around. There's no guarantee that you can run a
company better than the locals.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
Related Stories ?
� SOHO invests in project in Beijing's Sanlitun district
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� SOHO China to list in Hong Kong
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