Gap between aspiration and reality for Chinese firms trying to innovate through personalisation, says Economist Intelligence Unit study

2009-08-10 16:54
Hong Kong--(뉴스와이어)--Personalisation is on the agenda of China’s companies, but can they turn aspiration into reality? Going one step beyond customisation, personalisation entails the ability to adapt a product or service continually and independently, such as when users create and update their Facebook web pages or doctors develop treatments for patients based on the latter’s individual characteristics.

Chinese companies are responding to increasingly demanding consumers at home and abroad, and the move towards personalisation will be an important part of their strategy, according to a January 2009 survey conducted in Chinese by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Cisco. Fifty-four percent of respondents say that personalisation is already having a positive impact on company growth, and 64% expect it to spur growth in the next five years. Yet, despite the recognition of personalisation’s impact, China lags behind the rest of the world in this area of innovation. A global survey conducted in November 2006 showed that 82% of firms expected personalisation to affect their company’s growth in five years, (compared to 64% in China).

According to the new survey, there is a gap between Chinese companies’ recognition of the potential benefits of personalisation and their ability to make it happen. Personalisation: Opening doors to growth in China, a report based on the survey of 192 China-based executives and in-depth interviews with top managers at Chinese firms, found that although they recognise the potential benefits of personalisation, Chinese companies face unique challenges in delivering personalised products and services.

“Chinese companies still must overcome institutional barriers to innovation, which is a prerequisite for personalisation.” says Katherine Dorr Abreu, senior editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit. “An education system that continues to emphasise rote learning and rigid corporate hierarchies can limit creativity and innovation.”

Other findings of the study include:

· Customisation, already common in China, will gain ground in the next five years. Nearly 80% of survey respondents say their organisations today offer products or services that are partly or fully customisable, and 90% say they will do so in five years.

· Product and service innovation is particularly important for smaller firms in China. Large companies have the resources to supply technologically advanced goods and services, but smaller companies are keen to compete and they value innovation highly. Respondents from privately owned Chinese enterprises are most likely to consider product and service innovation important for their future: 80% rank it highly today and 90% say it will be important in five years. Among respondents from wholly foreign-owned enterprises, 67% rank it highly today, and 87% say it will be important in five years. The equivalent proportions from state-owned enterprises, which tend to be large, are 70% and 76%.

· Customer service may be just as important as innovation to boost company revenue, but for many Chinese companies it is still a new concept. To assess needs and deliver a personalised service, Chinese companies must get close to their customers. They often lack a service culture, however, and do not manage customer information well. Thirty-four percent of respondents say that decentralised customer information makes it difficult to implement a personalisation strategy, and 23% say that inadequate IT infrastructure is a barrier to collecting and centralising information.

Personalisation: Opening doors to growth in China is the third in a series of reports focusing on how companies do business in China, written by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Cisco. The earlier reports, Unlocking innovation in China and Collaboration in China: Paths to profit, also point to a gap between aspiration and reality as Chinese companies evolve within the global economy.

웹사이트: http://www.eiu.com

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Joanne McKenna
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