Chapter 20 Chapter 8 The world is flat (5)

The World Sporting Goods Federation is a non-governmental industry organization recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Its purpose is to promote the development of world sports activities worldwide, standardize sports equipment standards, sports rules and improve the quality standards of sports equipment, and promote them in sports products. of fair trade.Since the participation of Chinese officials and Chinese enterprises, the World Sporting Goods Federation can hear more voices from China.In fact, in 2005, the World Sporting Goods Federation played the role of coordinator in an international trade friction involving China. Around 2006, the European Union was preparing to conduct an anti-dumping investigation on the export of shoes from China and Vietnam to the EU. After the World Sporting Goods Federation and the European Sporting Goods Federation learned of the situation, they actively communicated with the China Sporting Goods Federation and tried their best to ensure that those who had exported China As the main production base (such as Nike, etc.) to support the interests of member units.China needs to ensure a good development environment for the entire domestic industry.They drafted a document and submitted it to the European Union to show the European Union that there is no sneaker production industry in Europe, and doing so will only harm the interests of European consumers. On February 23, Mandelson, chairman of the EU Trade Commission, suggested that the EU implement anti-dumping duties as high as nearly 20% on the grounds that China and Vietnam dumped on EU shoe exports, but the EU excluded special-quality sports shoes from the measures.

In this game, joining the world industry association obviously increases China's chances of winning.During the 2006 World Sporting Goods Federation Annual Conference, Wang Shichun, director of the Import and Export Fair Trade Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce, praised the cooperation between the World Sporting Goods Federation, the European Sporting Goods Federation and the China Sporting Goods Federation at the forum. It is believed that this is a successful example of cooperation between Chinese industry associations and international counterparts to reduce trade disputes.With the development of China's sporting goods products, it is inevitable that there will be more problems related to trade protection, anti-dumping, and intellectual property rights in the future. The sporting goods industry association will play a role that cannot be underestimated in solving these problems.

All this made Li Ning feel the changes in the outside world. As the boss who defends the interests of the local industry, it also feels more pressure. It has to be because in China, the sporting goods industry is not the first company to start internationalization.As early as before and after China's accession to the WTO in 2001, whether and how to internationalize Chinese enterprises has been the focus of debate among experts and scholars.At that time, one of the most used sayings was "the wolf is coming".After China joined the WTO, some experts said that "the wolves have not come".While experts are endlessly arguing about the right and wrong methods of internationalization, the international anti-dumping barriers are getting higher and higher, and the production costs and marketing networks in the domestic market are becoming less and less able to prevent multinational companies from planting their battle flags in the Chinese market. .Many companies have already felt the pressure of internationalization and have made efforts to deal with this situation.

From 2003 to 2004, TCL acquired Thomson's TV, DVD player business and Alcatel mobile phone business in one fell swoop.As a result, TCL became one of the first Chinese manufacturers to go global through the acquisition of well-known international brands, and has been highly praised.Still, TCL ended up being a case study of how going global can be a nightmare.Due to fierce competition and misjudgment of market trends, the joint venture established by the two parties has suffered losses for several years in a row. TCL's mobile phone joint venture with Alcatel was dissolved in 2006, and its cooperation with Thomson in the TV business also came to an end.

TCL's problems with Thomson and Alcatel underscore the difficulties Chinese companies face in using international mergers and acquisitions as a shortcut to global markets.However, mergers and acquisitions and setting up factories overseas are still the main ways for Chinese companies to internationalize. In May 2005, Lenovo Group acquired IBM's loss-making PC division.This bold move stems from Lenovo's determination to become an international company.Currently, all internal emails at the company are in English, and many Chinese employees have given English names to make it easier for their Western colleagues.

The approach of some other Chinese enterprises is to internationalize the market.China's two largest telecommunications equipment manufacturers, Huawei and ZTE, and motorcycle manufacturers Lifan and Zongshen have also successfully entered overseas markets, including Vietnam, with difficulty. During the trial process of these enterprises, in the interweaving of discussion and wait-and-see, a book was published in 2006, and it quickly became a bestseller in the business world that year.Companies that have been ahead of observers, successful or not, have made many internationalization efforts on the basis of intuition.Mergers and acquisitions, setting up factories overseas, and market internationalization are the main directions of their internationalization efforts.

In the sporting goods industry, in the early 21st century, when Nike entered China, it faced a difficult problem: the high-quality and cheap "Li-Ning" was popular in the market, how to expect Chinese consumers to spend two months' wages to buy a pair of sports shoes Woolen cloth?At that time, Nike's managers made a very challenging decision-to influence Chinese culture.Nike has donated to middle schools in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and other large cities. After school, students wear Nike to play basketball on the playground.Since then, Nike has opened up the Chinese market through a series of localization initiatives.