Why China?
The opportunity and the threat

In this context-setting overview, Roger Nagel will discuss Asia as a source of innovation and R&D collaboration – how to go beyond outsourced commodity products to produce synergies that exceed the benefits of reduced operations cost. He will outline the advantages and disadvantages of Asia (talent, cost, quality, speed, etc) and provide both positive and negative industry case examples. In addition he will talk about gaining access to the Chinese market and whether certain industries are more likely to succeed than others.

Co-innovation is about making "partnership" relations real (many outsourced deals are called “partnerships,” but are not really). Most collaborations will succeed or fail over cultural and harmony issues. This talk will provide advice, expertise and case experience to guide you in choosing and structuring partnerships as well as successfully managing them once in place. Most people think R&D is very long term and they can't afford to have an R&D center. But there is now hard evidence that the R&D investments are being made by small firms as well as large and that they yield product and process innovations that generate profit fairly quickly. Applied engineering development is now richly available in China; tapping into it as well as tapping into the China marketplace are today’s driving forces – this session will offer how-to’s and resources.

Negotiating and Initiating
a Partnership for Co-Innovation
Presentation and Interactive Exercise

Partnering with Chinese companies and organizations requires the ability to work effectively across cultures throughout the critical phases of negotiating, establishing agreement, initiating the partnership, and beyond. Before you can even start discussing revenue models and IP protection, you need to build trusting relationships with your Chinese partners. Along the way, differing cultural views of acceptable and unacceptable practices present huge challenges and require profound cultural understanding and adaptability. Chinese counterparts may appear pushy and unyielding; all the while, they might be viewing you as impatient and mistrusting. Successful co-innovation with partners in China requires knowing how to manage the engagement process and overcome such perceptions.

Led by author and project management expert Lothar Katz, who frequently works with Chinese partners, this session will equip you with the cross-cultural understanding, practical frameworks and methods to:

• Nurture trusting relationships with Chinese partners right from the start

• Prepare for unfamiliar negotiation tactics and deal with them successfully

• Identify and manage expectations; establish agreements in ways that make them dependable

• Stimulate open and trusting communication

• Encourage risk-taking and increase team motivation

• Establish ground rules that serve as a foundation for co-innovation

• Draw boundaries without closing doors

The session includes both presentation and hands-on group activity to reinforce and apply new approaches.

Featured Presentation:
Managing Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer in a Co-Innovation Environment - A China Perspective

Asia, especially China and its growing economy, represents a great market opportunity that nonetheless is full of challenges. With its intellectual property laws barely 20 years in the making, intellectual property management and technology transfer in China remain risky. The level of risk, however, is very industry sector dependent and is manageable in some industries but barely so in others. Such variations command different business strategies and arrangements that need to mesh with the culture and tradition of the industry sectors. In this session, Dr. Paau will outline these strategies and arrangements.

Building a successful partnership in China requires a diligent approach to intellectual property management and protection. Without careful consideration of how to ensure the safety of your IP, today’s partners can become tomorrow’s fierce competitors. What legal, strategic and operational actions can be taken to curtail IP theft?

Dr. Tao will address what precautions Air Products & Chemicals takes to monitor, manage and ensure its IP safety while working with Chinese partners. Dr. Tao will provide you with the latest information on available patent types in China, the Chinese patent litigation process, the Chinese court system and the realities of patent enforcement in China (today and in the foreseeable future). Learn how to select ethical, reputable business partners, effectively monitor these relationships and keep your trade secrets from being stolen.

Facilitated by Roger Nagel

In this lively and informative panel discussion, you will hear from experienced product development leaders who have established thriving partnerships and R&D centers in China. They will share specific techniques for ensuring two-way innovation, fostering creativity, finding and managing talent, structuring and developing partnerships to maximize mutual gain and ROI, and more. The bulk of this session is dedicated to answering your specific questions.

Panelists include Dr. Ike Nassi, SVP, SAP Research Americas; Jan Gronski, General Manager, China R&D Center, Cisco Systems and Bijan Dorri, GE China Technology Center (invited) Ike has done a number of projects in China and Taiwan.  While at Apple Computer, his group set up a development center in Zhuhai.  At InfoGear, Cisco, and Firetide he helped arrange for several product lines to be co-designed and then manufactured in China and Taiwan. Jan Gronski, General Manager, China R&D Center, Cisco Systems (Shanghai) has overseen the operation from an embryonic idea through to today where they have over 300 engineers staffing and plans to expand to over 1000 within the next 2-3 years. He is presently stationed in Shanghai and manages the site as well as product development activities.