Salary survey: marketing industries in China

A quick post about business (it's been a while!).

I just read this interesting survey about salaries in mainland China (it only covers the marketing industries (i.e. my field))... It's always interesting to have some benchmarks anyway. I have ordered a free copy of the whole study (which apparently covers other markets / fields); I'll put that online ASAP.

Meanwhile just follow this link.

Temasek (a.k.a. Singapore) and Thailand

Temasek strikes again ! Remember my post on the mega-holding Temasek, the financial arm of the Singaporean government ? Well Temasek (and other Singaporean investors) just invested 1.87 Bn USD into Shin Corps, to acquire 49.6% of its capital. To whom Temasek bought those shares? From Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra, prime minister of Thailand.

Well, well, well... actually Thaksin does not own the shares, he had to transfer them to his family when he became prime minister (Thai's regulation), anyway. When you know the rivalry between Singapore & Thailand (Chinese vs. Thai), you cannot not think that it was a bold political move from the Singaporean government.

To be continued...

Internet & Corporate ethics in China

Interesting article in Business Week about the Great Firewall of China (i.e. the way the Chinese government control the Internet). I am not sure I see exactly what Nicolas Becquelin (head of Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong) expects from foreign IT companies to do... Anyway, read by yourself : How China Controls the Internet.

A good blog on Venture Capitalism

Venture Capitalism, Private Equity, VC, etc. Go on David Cowan great blog on venture capitalism if you want to understand how the whole things work. Moreover, David is married to a French lady... someone married to a French lady cannot be all wrong ;-)

Consumer Research : Women's spending in China

Just found this article on the very good website www.danwei.org . Basically it is about the way women spend their revenue in China.
Things are changing quite fast in China (to say the least), so let's say that this article is valid at least for the next 3 months ;-)

Executive (lavish) Compensation

Reacting to my post on management's guru Peter Drucker, David posted a comment on this blog two days ago. "We need a corporate board reforms" argues David.

I bet we do !

Please refer to the McKinsey Quarterly article which demonstrates that a wide and comprehensive survey of the American corporate world shows that : "Directors and investors want to split the roles of chairman and CEO, to increase the accountability of directors, and to reduce executive compensation". And guess what? This can only be achieve by reforming the board.

We need less aristocrats & more entrepreneurs !

Peter Drucker

"The man who invented management" says the article in Business Week.

"The world knows he was the greatest management thinker of the last century" Jack Welch

A very interesting character indeed... After having written some of the classics of the management litterature (e.g. The Practice of Management [Amazon link], The Effective Executive [Amazon link], etc.), he then famously argued that a CEO should make no more than 20 times the salary of the lowest paid worker... That was in 1984, at a time when C-level management was making roughly 45 times the wage of a production worker.

The Economist magazine which has started a war on executives lavish compensation, states in a recent article that today the ratio of CEO's compensation to the pay of the average production worker jumped to 431.

To be meditated...

Taiwanese investment in Vietnam

Labour cost for qualified work force is becoming increasingly expensive in China's big cities nowaday...
Taiwanese investors (whom are known to be quite stingy) came in Shanghai in the early days to hire cheap managers. With 2000 to 3000 RMB/month (200-300 €) you could find someone valuable, 5000 RMB/month was enough for a top engineer, and 10 000-15 000 RMB/month (1000-1500 €), was a top management salary.
Those days are gone... Shanghainese are becoming more and more demanding, and the salaries proposed by HK and western corporations now outweight what the Taiwanese are ready to concede...
So, in a very Chinese pragmatic way, the Taiwanese are going elsewhere. Where? Vietnam ! Investments are on the way. More and more direct flights, etc.

Check those links on the subject :

• Taiwan is largest investor (China Post)
• The view from Taiwan (Blog)
• Taiwanese banks invest too (Vietnam Investment Review)
  

Minsheng Bank

Mmmh, not easy to find some info. on the Minsheng Bank shareholders. I come up with this. Quite helpful I have to say...

So to sum up, the biggest shareholder of Minsheng seems to be the New Hope Group with a little bit less than 7% of the capital.

Ah ah, last minute : I found the 10 biggest shareholders :

1. New Hope Investment (6.98%)
2. China Fanhai Holding Co., Ltd. (6.58%)
   
3. Oriental Group Co., Ltd. A.K.A Temasek (5.50%)
   
4. China Shipowners Association for Mutual Protection (5.34%)
   
5. China Small and Medium Enterprise Investment & Development Co., Ltd. (5.06%)
   
6. Xiamen Fuxin Group Company (4.82%)
7. ASIA FINANCIAL HOLDINGS PTE. LTD. (4.55%)
   
8. Shanghai Jiante Biotechnology Co., Ltd (3.75%)
9. Sichuan South Hope Industry Co., Ltd. (3.29%)
   
10. Harbin Shirble Electric-heat Co., Ltd. (2.53%)

For a total of : 48% of the shares, the rest is on the market apparently... All right that's it...

Temasek ?

It is a the kind of company no one talks about & they rule the world ! I love these !

Temasek is a huge financial holding (103 Bn USD in March 2005) based in Singapore. Basically, it represents the Singaporean state financial power. It is the main vehicle of the Singaporean Government foreign & domestic investment. They own part or totality of more than 50 companies : Singapore Airlines (57%), Singapore Telecom (63%), PT Bank Danamon (56%), CapitaLand (59%), Raffles Holding (35%), the Ascott Group (40%)... you name it !

Recently Temasek has been talked about a lot for it is on the verge to get a minority share in the Bank Of China (BoC). The relevant article in the FT is talking of a 10% share. Even for Temasek, that is a huge investment for BoC market capitalisation is closed to a 110 Bn USD.

This kind of investment is not totally new for Temasek though. Indeed it already owns a 5% share of the China Minsheng Banking Corp. though Minsheng is privately owned. Actually Minsheng is the sole bank in China which is privately owned.

You can download the latest financial report of Temasek here.

Footnote : I am curious to know who owns the other 95% of Minsheng... Gotta check that...

Branding & Marketing - Business Week article

I read this article in Business Week called Branding, a job well done not very interesting, except the part about the Ritz-Carlton hotel. I like their approach on marketing, especially when they say : "Smile. We are on stage."
Make a lot of sense to me... BTW reminds me of a quote by Mc Donald's former CEO : "you think we are in the food business ? you're wrong gentlemen, we are in Show Business."