2014.10.20 - Ben Simpfendorfer (Topic: Asia's New Complexities: The Coming Challenges for Business)
32014.10.20
Speaker: Ben Simpfendorfer
Founder & Managing Director of Silk Road Associates
Topic: Asia's New Complexities: The Coming Challenges for Business
Ben Simpfendorfer will share insights from his new book, The Rise of The New East, the result of interviews conducted with a range of business leaders in Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok, Jakarta, Mumbai, Lahore, and Cairo, among other cities. He argues that simple bullish or bearish views of the region’s growth prospects overlook the growing complexity of fast-changing business models, the rise of regional MNCs, and the spread of demand into smaller cities.
He will explore such issues as how the rise of e-commerce and digital media has leveled the playing field between MNCs and local firms; why foreign film studios have succeeded in China but struggled in India; how supplying Asia’s consumers is creating new stresses on the region’s supply-chains; and why retailers still choose to source from politically unstable Egypt as costs in China rise.
Simpfendorfer is Founder & Managing Director of Silk Road Associates. He is author of “The Rise of The New East” (Palgrave, 2014) and “The New Silk Road” (Palgrave, 2009). Simpfendorfer is the former chief China Economist for RBS and senior China Economist for JPMorgan. He has lived in Asia and the Middle East for the past 20 years and is a Mandarin and Arabic speaker.
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