The event started with an energetic speech by the key note speaker Mr. Bo Ji, the Assistant Dean & Chief Representative for Europe at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB). He couldn’t have stressed more that, now is the best time to move your business to Asia. Key points:
- Why Chinese market over American?
- Industrial trends in China and which industries can be a good target
- What not to do in China – The Don’ts
The most intriguing parts of Mr. Bo Ji’s talk were the fail cases and the learnings from them. Understanding the Chinese consumer behaviour, market, external factors, legislation, finding the right partners, localizing were some of the key recommendations he made.
The event progressed with a brief introduction about China eye opener program, offered by Tech code Finland for start-ups and new businesses which are interested in expanding their business in China. Tapani Nevanpää was present on behalf of Tekes which offers financial support to Finnish start-ups aiming to move to the Chinese market.
The last segment of the event was a very stimulating panel discussion with representatives of Flexound Systems & Sportywe along with Finnish business Consultant Lasse Liukkonen, living in China for over 10 years. They spoke about the general challenges Finnish Small businesses face in China and what might be a wrong attitude to carry to China. With some humour and wits the panel answered a few questions from the audiences present at the event. We called it a day with some networking over beer and snacks.
Story and photo by Richa Asthana. Richa is an intern at Aalto Start-Up Center for summer 2017