China CEO Council "China for China" Session Workshop Deck

Many China Center members perceive China operations for foreign investors to be at an inflection point. In
general, the long term China opportunity is considered strongly positive and an essential pursuit. But
business environment changes are myriad, and risks, complexities and adaptation requirements are
profound.

At a structural level, a confluence of factors is creating a more divergent China business environment,
including:

• Intensifying US China and Sino Western tensions, and related compliance, public affairs, government affairs, business continuity, and secure supply adaptations.
• Rapidly changing and increasingly demanding Chinese customer preferences, and the need for increasing product customization to address them.
• The accelerated rise of Chinese competitors in the value chain, and the need for deeper product and business model adaptation to maintain competitiveness especially in mid range product segments classic “Innovator Dilemmas”.
• Rapidly expanding ecommerce channels across all B2C categories, and widespread digital adoption for B2B commercial and service operations, all using Chinese platforms, apps and ICT systems a difficult leap for most HQ IT leaders.

How are MNCs responding?
Recent member discussions paint a picture of increasingly autonomous, if not quite separated, China
operations in the future, often described by the phrase “China for China”. This Council meeting examines
China for China trends, imperatives, dynamics, and lessons.