International Trade | Deceptively Blonde

Tag Archives: International Trade

Is Apple Losing Favor?

Apple has a problem. . .

Six years ago when I first came to China, Steve Jobs was their hero much like Jack Ma. He came from a nondescript background and built a billion-dollar company.

They loved anything and everything Apple — walking in with the newest iPhone was a necessity for flaunting economic status much as wearing Louis Vuitton or Coco Chanel.

This week I polled my students about their impressions of the new iPhone.

Approximately 200 students spread across five classes participated as I asked them

1) Who (if you had the money) would purchase the new iPhone? and
2) Who (even if you had the money) would not?

Amongst all the students (and with a good 80-85% participation rate), fewer than 15 raised their hands that they would buy. The vast majority actively stated they had no interest in the new phone.

Many cited appearance, but others pointed to

Customer service,
Unreasonable pricing for the value,
Expensive and incompatible accessories,
Non-integration with educational and professional needs (.pages doesn’t open on many computers),
Preference for domestic brands
Other

These students are in one of the most expensive programs in China. They ARE the ones who have the money . . . if they aren’t buying, it’s not looking good.

Anyone else get similar impressions?

Tags: Apple, Apple Products in China, Economics, International Business, International Trade, Microeconomics, Trade with China, US China Trade

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Categories Business & Economics

Queen of Problem Solving!

14 Sep

You know that Job interview question “What is one time you faced a difficult situation and how did you resolve or handle the situation?” I like that question, because let me count the ways!

Just spent a week working with a US partner, the US partner’s supplier, the supplier’s International division, the US supplier again, their superior, and their superior’s superior — they concluded we couldn’t do what needed to be done.

After reviewing the online system capabilities, I found a way and instead we have successfully set up a program to run the system out of both US and China. It just took 10 minutes to adapt, and voila! We are up and running!

If nothing else, working internationally gives you a lot of experience in handling difficult situations and in finding innovative solutions. Sometimes you have to patchwork things together with duct tape and glue to get it operating, but success is always possible — somehow, somewhere. You just have to be open-minded enough to try many solutions until you find the right one.