每日时讯英文阅读：Competition from China: Two McKinsey Surveys

Competition: Weak but strengthening

Although China is seen as having a competitive advantage as far as price, a surprising number of executives around the world—41 percent of the respondents—view Chinese companies as weaker competitors than companies from other countries (Exhibit 3). Besides lower prices, companies in China have little to offer global markets, say respondents, who particularly dismiss Chinese product quality, marketing skills, and brand strength. From the Chinese perspective, the results suggest that low costs will go only so far and that moving up the value chain is more important than ever.

A perception that Chinese companies are laggards might explain why many executives report mounting a muted business response to Chinese competitors, at best. For example, only 28 percent of the executives who responded to the survey say they work for a company that has changed its approach to sourcing a great deal over the last three years, compared with 40 percent reporting a little change and 29 percent reporting none (Exhibit 4). More respondents report that their companies tweaked the organizational structure (46 percent), marketing (44 percent), and global strategies (43 percent), but in each of these areas, less than 20 percent report significant changes. This lackluster reaction to the global ambitions of China’s companies raises the question of whether business executives elsewhere are setting themselves up for some unhappy competitive surprises.

Yet the responses to the survey also suggest that executives expect their Chinese competitors to nibble away at the global revenues of their companies. Indeed, 80 percent expect competition from companies in China to increase over the next three years. And although about two-thirds say companies based in China have had no impact on the global revenues of their own companies over the past three years, almost half expect to take a hit in revenue over the next three (Exhibit 5).

The ambitions of Chinese companies

While the global competition appears to have its guard down, executives at companies based in China are preparing for a battle royal. In the survey of executives at such companies, almost three out of five respondents say their long-term goal in moving outside the domestic market is to become a global competitor. Relatively few—14 percent—say they’d be satisfied with regional success. Indeed, an overwhelming 77 percent say they expect their companies’ revenues from outside mainland China to increase over the next three years, including 29 percent who foresee a significant increase in foreign revenues. Such expectations are in line with the respondents’ recent experiences: 74 percent say that the foreign revenues of their companies increased over the past three years, with 31 percent reporting a significant increase.

By a large margin, executives at Chinese companies say the biggest obstacle to the global growth of their companies is a talent shortage. Forty-four percent cite a lack of managerial talent as a barrier to globalization—well ahead of insufficient capital (Exhibit 6). This jibes with the view of executives from other countries, only 1 percent of whom cite stronger managerial talent in Chinese companies as giving them a competitive edge.

Overall, 59 percent of the respondents from companies based in China say they are active outside the mainland. Of these, almost half say they were pushed to globalize by increased domestic competition. Other important drivers of international expansion were the personal ambitions of company leaders, the international moves of domestic competitors, and encourage-ment from the state.

Among respondents whose companies are active outside mainland China, 46 percent say that North America is an important region for them, followed by developing Asia, including South-east Asia (39 percent), and by the European Union (31 percent). Other markets, including India, are important to far fewer respondents.