China's technology innovators : selected cases on creating and staying ahead of business trends

193 Pages·2017·3.57 MB·English

by  Zhu

MMaannaagggeemmeenntt ffoorr PPrrooffeessssiioonnaallss
Xiaoming Zhu
China's
Technology
Innovators
Selected Cases on Creating and Staying
Ahead of Business Trends
Management for Professionals
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10101
Xiaoming Zhu
’
China s Technology
Innovators
Selected Cases on Creating and Staying
Ahead of Business Trends
123
Xiaoming Zhu
ChinaEuropeInternationalBusinessSchool
Shanghai
China
ISSN 2192-8096 ISSN 2192-810X (electronic)
Managementfor Professionals
ISBN978-981-10-5387-0 ISBN978-981-10-5388-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-5388-7
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Foreword I
The Inevitable Trend of an Innovation-driven Future
Professor Xiaoming Zhu always says, “Innovation will drive the trends of the
future.”Innovationhasnowbecomeakeyplatformfornationalgrowth,aswellasa
powerful engine for social and industrial development. A range of new technolo-
gies, products, and business models have emerged as we enter the era of the
“Internet of Everything”. While this offers many inspiring opportunities, you can
alsobeoverwhelmedonthepathwaytoinnovation.Tosucceedinanever-changing
world,andmakeprogresswithspecificgoals,weneedinsightintothefutureanda
sharp mind for business and technological development.
ProfessorXiaomingZhuhasalwaysbeencommittedtoexploringthefrontiersof
innovation,despitethedemandsofhisadministrativeactivities.Heisknownasthe
“24/7PresidentandProfessor”ofCEIBSasheisalwaysworking,evenafterhours,
onweekendsandduringholidays.Hislecturesarerichincontentandpassionately
delivered,makinghimthemostpopularprofessoratCEIBS.Afterseveralworksand
translations such as Payment Revolution, Mastering the Hype Cycle, and Business
TrendsintheDigitalAge:EvolutionofTheoriesandApplications,Prof.Xiaoming
ZhuhascompletedChina’sTechnologyInnovators:SelectedCasesonCreatingand
Staying Ahead of Business Trends, which presents various successful innovation
case studies about Chinese companies, such as 3DMed: R&D Platform for
Personalized Anti-cancer Precision Drugs, Alibaba: The Decade-long Road to
Financial Services, Flexible Adaptation: “Autonomous Navigation” of Amap, and
ICBC in theDigital Times, all representativecase studiesthat Prof. Xiaoming Zhu
hasusedforteachinginthelast2–3years,andcontinuouslyupdatedandimproved.
Allthecasestudieshaveasharedfocus:howtoachievesuccessfulentrepreneurship
and innovation in the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors through Big Data,
cloudcomputing,theplatformeconomy,andmobileInternet.Aswellasadetailed
descriptionofthecase,allofthecasestudiesincludeinterpretationsandcomments
fromexpertsinrelevantareasandEMBAstudents,whichareparticularlyhelpfulto
readers,enabling in-depth study of thecases from multipleperspectives.
v
vi ForewordI
I am pleased to see that CEIBS, as the leading Chinese business school in
management education for the past 20 years, is still committed to the principles of
exploration and innovation, with a focus on “China Depth and Global Breadth”,
thanks to the tireless efforts of all the management, faculty, and students. CEIBS
will work together with Chinese companies during their future journey of
innovation.
October 2015 Dr. Li Mingjun
President and Professor of Management
China Europe International Business School
Shanghai, China
Foreword II
Thisbookofcaseson innovationpracticesofChinese companiesinthedigitalera
is another important step forward in the process of building a strong base of
knowledge on the research of Chinese innovation in China.
Teachingbythecasemethodiscomplex.PeterDrucker,theleadingphilosopher
in the field of management, proposed that management professors should develop
frameworkstoaddressprofessionallythemanagementissuesoftheirinterest.Cases
become the vehicle to bring the real world to the classroom and practice the
applicationofthoseframeworks.Thisisamethodthatcanhelpalottodevelopnew
management applicable knowledge.
CEIBS pioneered inChina a relevanteffortincasewriting aswell asintheuse
ofcasesinalltheportfolioofprogramstheschooloffersaroundtheworld.Wecan
argue that management is a global discipline, and that what happens inside a
classroominAmerica,inEurope,orinChina,must,therefore,beverysimilar.This
means that business schools around the world should discuss cases on issues that
happen in Europe, in America, in China, or in other relevant areas of the world.
The objective of this book is to contribute to fill the gap between the interest
of the world’s management community in China and the limited availability of
cases on innovation issues in China. Moreover, in the background of the fast
developmentofmobileInternet, China setsoffawaveofpopularentrepreneurship
and innovation and many companies would face the difficulties of transformation
and businessmodel changing.The publication ofthis bookis a good reference for
their problems’ resolving.
These cases would have not been possible without the generous collaboration
ofthemanagementofthedifferentcompaniesinvolved.Theydedicatedtimetoand
sharedinformationwiththecasewriters.Bydoingthis,thesecompaniessharewith
the case writers and the publishers of the book the merits of this most needed
vii
viii ForewordII
contribution. Meanwhile,we will also thank CEIBS EMBAalumni and professors
from CEIBS whose dedicated work has narrowed the distance between the case
authors and the reader.
September 2015 Prof. Pedro Nueno
Executive President
China Europe International Business School
Shanghai, China
’
Author s Preface
At the turn of 2015, Mastering the Hype Cycle saw its Chinese translation issued;
the monography Business Trends in the Digital Age: Evolution of Theories and
Applications (Chinese version) was published. Based on these books, my 2-day
lecture,“BusinessTrendsandTechnologyInnovation”,commandsgreatpopularity
with CEIBS MBA and FMBA (Finance MBA) students, who often lend me a
helpinghandwithcasewriting.Overthepast5years,Ihavedevotedmuchtimeto
topic selection, company visit, and case writing, while authoring books and
preparing teaching materials as a full-time professor.
Mynewbook,China’sTechnologyInnovators:SelectedCasesonCreatingand
Staying Ahead of Business Trends (Chinese version), is due for publication at the
turnof2016.Whencorrectingthe finalproofsonemonthago,Iwrotethispreface
to provide readers with some enlightenment: (1) “Sorting the Wheat from the
Chaff” indicates there is strict underlying logic behind ten mega business trends
detailed in this book; (2) “A Straw in the Wind” implies keeping abreast of tech-
nologyinnovationhelpsusidentifybusinesstrends;(3)“AsCompellingasEver”is
an ultimate target for classroom lectures, academic studies or case teaching.
Sorting the Wheat from the Chaff
In the times of digital technology and Internet, ideas about user orientation, itera-
tion,andplatform,freemium andsharinghavecaughton;thetideofopennessand
inclusiveness, deconstructing, and disintermediation runs strong; garage culture,
café culture, and grassroots culture have taken hold all over the world.
Whichunderlyingbusinesstrendsmeritspecialattention?Inmymind,tenmega
business trends in the digital age described in Business Trends in the Digital Age
demonstrate sound logic: Trend I, Trend II, Trend III, and Trend IV, “Big Data,
Cloud Computing, Platforms and Mobile Internet”, predict the changes in infras-
tructure; Trend V, “Software-Defined Anything”, focuses on how software will
becomethemostimportantforceofproductioninthedigitalage;TrendVI,namely,
ix