Spring Break
Asia Business Conference 2005: Adding Value in Asia, From Outsourcing To Innovation
Makiko Nakata (OJ), Ted Lin (OF), Richard Lin (OH), Joe Kauffman (NA), Will Plummer (OA), and Marily
Issue date: 2/28/05 Section: News
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The Asia Business Conference was held last weekend from Friday afternoon, February 18th to Saturday, February 19th at HBS. The annual conference attracted close to 700 MBA students, professionals, and executives, who are interested in where Asia is headed. This year, the theme was "Adding Value in Asia: From Outsourcing to Innovation." The conference examined how Asia has evolved from a region that started as a low-technology outsourcing movement to provider of the most sophisticated and innovative products and services that it is today.
Over the one and a half day conference, attendees had opportunities to listen to over 70 business leaders, government officials, and scholars speak on multiple dimensions regarding Asia. The topics covered were broad, ranging from legal protection of intellectual property to high-tech and biotech industry trends in Asia. In terms of countries covered, India was for the first time represented at the conference. The successful diversity of this conference was made possible by the joint team of 100 organizers from the Asia Business Club of HBS, the Harvard Asia Law Society of Harvard Law School, and the East Asia Caucus of Kennedy School of Government. The HBS co-chairs of the conference, Fumi Katsuki (OI), Richard Lin (OH), and Ted Lin (OF), had also put tremendous effort in bringing this diversity together.
Peter Weedfald, SVP of Samsung USA, was one of the distinguished keynote speakers. He shared how Samsung focused to cope with the short product cycle of the industry: how to become the "freshest lettuce on the shelf," quickest distribute to market, and the fastest marketer or even before the products are out.
The second keynote speaker, Phil Murtaugh, CEO of General Motors China, discussed his views on the Chinese market. As China has become GM's second largest market and GM's market share has grown faster than its competitors, he sees huge growth potential in the region. Speed in execution and local market knowledge have been key to GM's success; the fact that GM also has a local design center there gives them an additional competitive advantage.
Over the one and a half day conference, attendees had opportunities to listen to over 70 business leaders, government officials, and scholars speak on multiple dimensions regarding Asia. The topics covered were broad, ranging from legal protection of intellectual property to high-tech and biotech industry trends in Asia. In terms of countries covered, India was for the first time represented at the conference. The successful diversity of this conference was made possible by the joint team of 100 organizers from the Asia Business Club of HBS, the Harvard Asia Law Society of Harvard Law School, and the East Asia Caucus of Kennedy School of Government. The HBS co-chairs of the conference, Fumi Katsuki (OI), Richard Lin (OH), and Ted Lin (OF), had also put tremendous effort in bringing this diversity together.
Peter Weedfald, SVP of Samsung USA, was one of the distinguished keynote speakers. He shared how Samsung focused to cope with the short product cycle of the industry: how to become the "freshest lettuce on the shelf," quickest distribute to market, and the fastest marketer or even before the products are out.
The second keynote speaker, Phil Murtaugh, CEO of General Motors China, discussed his views on the Chinese market. As China has become GM's second largest market and GM's market share has grown faster than its competitors, he sees huge growth potential in the region. Speed in execution and local market knowledge have been key to GM's success; the fact that GM also has a local design center there gives them an additional competitive advantage.
