The German Innovators in China Podcast: Providing access to innovation trends in China & the EU – Détails, épisodes et analyse

In the new podcast episode of German Innovators in China (GINN), Johannes and Bettina sit down with AI and automotive expert Ke Zhu.

Key Highlights:

1. Accelerating Autonomous Driving: Discover how cutting-edge generative AI models are revolutionizing the development of self-driving cars by creating realistic driving scenarios for enhanced safety and efficiency.
2. Journey Towards AGI & singularity: Listen to a thought-provoking discussion on the advancements steering us closer to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and the implications for industries and governments worldwide.
3. Process Automation Revolution: Learn how AI-driven automation is reshaping business processes, boosting human efficiency, and redefining operational standards across various sectors and regions.

About our guest:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-ke-zhu/

Join Bettina and Michael Maeder, Partner at the renowned executive search firm August Leadership, as they uncover the secrets to building and scaling high-performing Chinese-German teams.

From what startups need to thrive in an intercultural setup to identifying the right mindset in potential partners, this episode is packed with actionable insights and expert advice for anyone navigating the global business landscape.

Felix Reinshagen, CEO and co-founder of NavVis, shares his personal China experience and explains why the market is so important for deep tech startups today.

He points out that entering the Middle Kingdom early on can help you to fully understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks of a new technology, especially in deep tech. And he finds that being focused on a few, well-defined industry segments is a key success factor in China sales.

Last but not least, Felix calls on all startups to meet their Chinese competitors in China first (rather than letting them surprise us in other markets).

About:

NavVis: https://www.linkedin.com/company/navvis/

GINN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/german-innovators/

Felix Reinshagen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/felix-reinshagen-527ab97a/

Bettina Scheibe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bettina-b-scheibe-b069b45a/

Jason Alleyne, co-founder and Managing Director of the startup CFO-AI, shares how collaboration and gamification have made a difference for his personal journey in the Chinese market.

He finds that family pride, group KPIs and the incentivisation of societal behaviour via gamification play a key role in China and are the secret sauce that makes Chinese businesses so successful.

Chapter marks: 

(00:00:00)  Intro

(01:09:08)  Zero bias for max collab mindset

(02:44:02)  Collaboration and gamification

(04:12:19)  InnoHive innovation game

(09:06:21)  Multinational and heterogenous setup

(10:55:21)  Growing cfo-ai with PE

(14:02:21)  Getting rid of limitations / 1+1=110

(17:53:03)  Re-imagination / societal good

(22:59:01)  Family pride / group KPIs

(25:59:04)  Collab with a few / competition of many

(30:54:04)  Thinking in boxes / gamification

(33:44:08)  Incentivisation of societal behaviour

(36:38:07)  Gamification of healthy eating

(42:08:06)  Summary

About: 

cfo-ai: https://reimage.cfo-ai.com/

GINN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/german-innovators/ 

Jason Alleyne: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-alleyne-413a248/ 

Bettina Scheibe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bettina-b-scheibe-b069b45a/ 

In this episode, Bettina talks with Felix Wendlandt, founder of the beer brand Brander Urstoff, about how to develop tailored business strategies for the Chinese market. 

Felix shares his experience on how and why to build a mainly Chinese team, how to master sales challenges in China, and why you might not want to stress the German origin of your brand nowadays if you’re operating in a traditional industry like beer brewing.

Last but not least, Felix recommends his favourite accelerator programs to enrol in if you plan to build your business in China.

About Brander Urstoff:

• http://branderurstoff.com/
• http://www.brander-urstoff.cn/

About EO:

• https://www.eonetwork.org/shanghai

About Felix Wendlandt:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/felixwendlandt/

About GINN:

• https://www.linkedin.com/company/german-innovators/

Should we take Chinese competition seriously? Which industries are challenged most by Chinese competition? Bettina speaks with Peter Legner, CEO at Schenck Shanghai Machinery Corporation (Dürr Group) and CEO China at HOMAG Group, about his experience from 30 years of doing business in China, his latest learnings and his view on new technology trends in the Middle Kingdom.

Key take-aways:

1) Stop underestimating Chinese competition or you might find yourself losing significant market share.

2) Successful Chinese competitors aren't only challenging us in China, but have long started moving into our home markets.

3) Fields of competition include ALL industries, namely future technologies, traditional industries, consumer tech, B2B & the industrial space.

4) Everyone should be well informed about Chinese competition - NOT only corporates and SMEs, but ALSO startups and investors.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-legner-9829948/

Stay tuned and subscribe! We’re here to support you - Your German Innovators in China network.

Bettina speaks with her guest Maren Petry, National Senior Director Innovation at the German Chamber of Commerce in China, about innovation activities of German companies in China and their global impact. They have a closer look at the German Chamber's latest innovation survey "Innovation from China going global" which was just published on June 28th, 2022 in collaboration with the German Chamber's partner BearingPoint.

Key findings include:

1) Competition is the main innovation driver for German companies in China.

2) The Chinese market is not only important with regards to its sales volume, but also with regards to its potential of becoming an important R&D hub for global solutions.

3) Chinese competitors are really strong in their R&D, especially in the establishment and expansion of the same. Advanced R&D processes driven local teams contribute to their success.

4) Chinese competitors are so much quicker with regards to the time-to-market because of their extensive knowledge and usage of the social commerce system, which leads to new forms of customer engagement and also quick feedback loops between customer and manufacturer.

Find out what German companies can do to further improve in these fields.

And most importantly: Enjoy and subscribe! ;)

Link to the referenced survey:
https://china.ahk.de/de/news/news-details/german-innovation-from-china-going-global-amid-a-complex-innovation-ecosystem-german-chambers-innovation-survey-2022

In the first episode of the new GINN CHINABEATS series, Bettina and her guest Kevin J. Worner have a fresh look at developments in the European and Chinese startup ecosystem, and discuss differences in communication, networking and execution. 

Key learnings include:

1) European entrepreneurs should forget about frameworks and push the limits.

2) Social media is the key to modern business communication, and can lead to an exponential growth of personal business networks.

3) Mass entrepreneurship is a success factor for fast innovation: 100 above average thinkers will for sure come up with a great solution, while 1 excellent thinker might not.

4) A highly digital consumer base, as well as young talent educated in STEM / AI, play an important role in the perception of technological opportunities.

Enjoy and subscribe! 

In this episode, we will talk to Carina and Farah. Both founders chose Shanghai to be their favorite place to live long before they actually met each other. After becoming friends they decided quickly to build their own company and to shake up the skincare market in Asia and globally. Their company NUDE by Korea is dedicated to producing eco-friendly skincare products with natural and organic ingredients. 

Tune in for a very insightful conversation. Not only did we talk about NUDE by Korea, its business model, their marketing approach, but also about Carina and Farah's personal story as entrepreneurs, the community of social entrepreneurs in Shanghai, as well as the sustainability movement in China, and Chinese consumers openness towards new sustainable products. 

We hope this episode provides you with valuable insights. If you have particular topics that you would like to see covered in the coming episodes or have any other feedback, feel free to contact us.

References and mentions: 

NUDE by Korea: https://nudebykorea.com 

Wechat official page: NUDEcare

Instagram: instagram.com/nudebykorea

Carina's LinkedIn:  linkedin.com/in/carina-schaefer-610b7353/

Farah's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/farah-lopez-del-aguila-b0155768/

Till's  Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/tillammelburg/

GINN Linkedin:  linkedin.com/company/german-innovators/ 

In this episode, we will talk with Patrick Theobald from Peakboard. Peakboard is a startup company with headquarters in Germany, which established a remarkable footprint in China. By visualizing and networking real-time data, Peakboard enables especially manufacturing and logistics companies to optimize their processes in an easy plug-and-play manner.  Patrick Theobald, founder of Theobald Software and Peakboard, was mainly responsible for bringing Peakboard to China. He will walk us through the whole journey from going to China for the first time, through getting the first customer projects, until employing their first employee. We will discuss the decisive moment when Patrick had to decide to either go all-in on China or pull-out and abort the China mission.  We will tackle IP, distribution partners, talent, cultural differences, and more.  

We hope this episode provides you with valuable insights. If you have particular topics that you would like to see covered in the coming episodes or have any other feedback, feel free to contact us.

References and mentions:

GINN Linkedin Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/german-innovators/

Peakboard: https://peakboard.com/

Patrick's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-theobald-9aa598a/

DC Hub: https://dc-hub.de/

TechCode: https://techcode-germany.com/home/

Till's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tillammelburg/