Today we speak with André-Philippe Chenail, former Quebec Chapter Director of Canada China Business Council and Candidate for the St. Jean riding for the Green Party of Canada, speaking about the role of the Canada China Business Council in helping cross-cultural business relations and his time running both the Shanghai and Quebec offices, China’s leap in sophistication, and what he’s seeing as the most important trends in the China business landscape.
Show Notes
We start out this podcast asking AP about his transition through the CCBC organization and why they’ve needed to scale so rapidly lately in both services and locations in China and across Canada. He describes some of the events they’ve drawn up and pulled off as some of their biggest accomplishments and why they are so important to their members to gain further footing in China.
AP then speaks about the reciprocal sentiments that Canadian and Chinese companies have towards each other and why despite seemingly cool at times it’s more a product of the political sentiment more than it is the business temperature which still remains very warm. He delivers a great example of this through the story of how a leading manufacturer of electric motors in Canada had to wait 18 months for orders to start coming in again during China’s change in leadership back in 2013.
AP also talks about the one word that describes China’s recent jump forward, describing it as a leap in sophistication. And not just in transactional sophistication but also consumer behaviour sophistication in how they research and make buying decisions, not just relying on influencer marketing.
We wrapped up the podcast by discussion some predictions on what the future trends are for China, including the Made In China 2025 and the rise in China-made electrical components that will strengthen their positioning in such areas as supply chain as well as the way software will be written that we’ll all need to know and understand.
And as we always do with each guest, Andre-Phillipe gives his number one piece of advice for foreign brands moving into the Chinese market.
What is The Negotiation?
Despite being the world’s most potent economic area, Asia can be one of the most challenging regions to navigate and manage well for foreign brands. However, plenty of positive stories exist and more are emerging every day as brands start to see success in engaging and deploying appropriate market growth strategies – with the help of specialists.
The Negotiation is an interview show that showcases those hard-to-find success stories and chats with the incredible leaders behind them, teasing out the nuances and digging into the details that can make market growth in APAC a winning proposition.