Riddle me this? Starbucks Coffee Bean prices

Why does a half pound (225 g) of Yunnan Coffee cost 85 RMB (12.71 USD) in China? Do we attribute it the Starbucks price bump? Probably not, because you can get twice as much beans for your buck at Starbucks stateside. Around 67 RMB (10 USD) for a full pound (453 g) thats twice as much coffee for a much lower price. And Yunnan Coffee is one of the least expensive worldwide. Just for perspective we offer a half pound of our Yunnan Hope coffee for 29 RMB (4.33 USD) and ours is considered on the "expensive" side because we work with the coffee growers that grow it, paying fair wages and donate part of the sales on top of that to planting more trees. Why is Starbuck's Yunnan coffee 3 times more expensive?

Retaining your Chinese Employee

Pretty interesting thoughts on keeping employees in China. Mostly focused on larger corporations or businesses in the coastal cities. I would add showing respect, kindness, and paying fairly. Seems obvious but you would be surprised.

From The China Observer:

Be flexible about employee titles

In general, it’s not wise to give inflated titles to employees whose skills and responsibilities don’t match up. While the title may initially satisfy an employee, he or she is likely to eventually consider themselves underpaid for the rank and demand more compensation. However, some companies have found a way around this dilemma by committing to a standard company-wide title and pay grade internally, while granting the employee a more appealing outward facing title on their business cards and in the marketplace. As one Asia Pacific CEO at a leading technology firm put it, “if the regional sales manager for China and Taiwan wants his business card to read ‘Greater China Director of Business Development’ I am ok with it, if that’s what it takes for him to stay in the company and continue to hit his sales targets.”

Think long-term when it comes to incentives

Convincing your local talent to buy into the company vision and stick around over the long-term may prove challenging. Nevertheless, you may be able to increase the likelihood your top employees will stay past the two-year mark by tying their incentives to aspirational purchases. The ideal path for a top graduate on the white collar career track is to graduate, get married, and buy a house. In recent years, a second major purchase typically follows home ownership - a car. Understanding this phenomenon, one company set up an incentive scheme for top sales managers. The company would provide an interest free loan to selected employees to buy cars and match a portion of the payments for 5 years. If the employee leaves the company before five years, they would lose the car and the company’s contribution. For those who stick around, they receive a car at a significantly reduced price. This is somewhat similar to companies outside of China issuing stock option plans, in which employees’ options fully vest only after a set number of years working for the company.

Shatter the glass ceiling

The Asia Pacific CEO at most Western multinational companies is often a foreigner from headquarters. Typically, other key positions such as VP Strategy, VP Marketing, even down to middle-management posts are filled by expatriates. This is unsustainable for a business seeking to localize for the long-term. As soon as a key Chinese employee sees a glass ceiling looming above her head, she will opt to join other firms. Interestingly, an increasing number of mid-level managers are choosing to leave Western MNCs for domestic firms. According to Frontier Strategy Group’s 2010 China Talent Engagement Survey, domestic Chinese firms empower their mid-level managers with greater responsibility than their counterparts at multinationals. On average, the typical mid-level manager (age 31-35) at a Chinese firm oversees 13 direct reports, while those at Western MNCs on average only directly manage 9 employees. It is important for top talent to see a clear career path at your company, or else ambitious employees seeking career advancement with increased responsibility may leave for a competing local firm such as Mindray, Baosteel, Huawei Technologies or Haier where there is more potential for career advancement.

Sugar Free Now Available at Chicago Coffee

Come try our new sugar free hazelnut, almond, caramel, and Irish cream flavors.

10 Irreversible Trends Re-shaping China and its Relationship with the World

An interesting book posted from the China Law Blog:

Bill Dodson of This is China! Blog fame, is coming out with a book, entitled, China Inside Out: 10 Irreversible Trends Re-shaping China and its Relationship with the World and pre-ordering is now available on Amazon for delivery next month. I am certain the book will be good.

It is going to focus on the following ten "major social, economic, environmental and technological trends that are molding a China":

CHAPTER 1: China's Generation W(eb) – The Great Firewall of China seems monthly to become more sophisticated with growing armies of internet censors and cutting- edge technologies that filter and block web sites, emails, and text messages that promote the free flow of ideas and expression. But how far will government censors be able to go before a cyber- subculture of hundreds of millions of Chinese rebel en masse?

CHAPTER 2: Keeping Up with the Zhangs – Chinese are on average becoming richer, less healthy and more anxious as they eat more, drive more, smoke more, work more with few government assurances their assets and their futures are secure;

CHAPTER 3: Country Mouse, City Mouse – China needs its migrant workers from the countryside to build its cities, and, increasingly, to live in them, with ever increasing stresses between the have's and the wanna have's;

CHAPTER 4: "Not in My Backyard!" – As more Chinese embrace the ideal if not the practice of an American style middle class lifestyle, it is beating records as the world's largest polluter of land, water and air resources;

CHAPTER 5: With the Appetite of a Dragon – China has been on a buying spree abroad as modernization leaves it with less arable land, food, crude oil and other mineral resources. Ultimately, though, it will find water more precious than oil, with dire implications for its neighbors.

CHAPTER 6: China 24/7 – As the East Coast becomes a more expensive and congested place in which to do business domestic and foreign production and infrastructure development is moving to China's hinterlands, where 800 million Chinese literally work day and night to get rich and show it off;

CHAPTER 7: China, At Your Services – The hallmarks of China’s nascent services sector are a lack of civility, little sense of customer care and arcane bureaucracies. If only Chinese hospitals, for instance, were more like the country's wedding industry, where the customer is queen, service level quality reigns and beating out the hundreds of local competitors is a matter of pride.

CHAPTER 8: The Global Sugar Daddy – As China becomes richer its trade practices, currency positions, stock markets, and foreign investments will matter more in the international marketplace, which will increasingly resist opaque Chinese business practices and inadequate quality and governance controls;

CHAPTER 9: Hot Pot Nation - China's allure as the most populace country in the world has for millennia snared foreign and Chinese interests into cultivating and exploiting a source of tremendous wealth and energy. Now, population pressures lanced by the One Child Policy and a rapidly aging population with a below- par replacement rate are becoming national and global liabilities.

CHAPTER 10: In the Shadow of the Emperors – Chinese nationalism and militarization are increasingly filling the vacuum left by the lack of a civil society and the dearth of reflection on the country's modern history, making its neighbors near and far anxious about how aggressively it will fulfill its role as a rising superpower.