Technology: Share your mind

They couldn't resist it. As Chinese firms repeatedly fail to create a brand of any consequence the purchase of the consistently loss making IBM computers has been further politicised as some kind of patriotic business touchstone. Naturally, this means that the chances of China IBM (previously IBM China: the China now comes first to reflect the "pride" of purchasing an American business that has lost more than USD$5bn) actually surviving the next few years, let alone growing anything except its debt has been shrunk to almost zero.

The chairman of IBM China, Daniel Chow, said that it was the aim of the company to become a completely local Chinese company, and to be viewed by Chinese and the Chinese authorities as a "national asset of the country". Chinese economic and trade policy is based on having at least one Chinese company which can compete on a global scale with other multinationals in each sector. Obviously buying something that is clearly kneck deep in shit is not an intelligent move - all kinds of people are going to have egg on thier faces with this, when will they learn not to intefere by politicising everything...there is this bizarre illusion that political support will help the business. While this is a samrt move in some areas, it is fraught with problems in an area that is highly commoditized like PC's - the business model is largely based on aggressive efficiency (Dell, Dell and Dell) - something that government support simply cannot provide...how far will they go in supporting the losses to "gain" and then save face? What a waste in a country where many schools dont have enough books for children in school.

A good reason why Lenovo, Haier etc have bombed out is repeated government intervention and encouragement to diversify and expand in a desperate attempt to be "successful". The governments hunger for international recognition in business has consistently failed and is fast becoming the kiss of death on any business venture - support is based on the businesses relationship with the goernment rather than its customers. Not tooclever in a deregulated tech markets.

Government support is great for a business that has been looked at in depth and with objectivity - yet again, any inteligence has been tossed out of the window in favor of irrational and unsubstatiated ranting about patriotism, "face" and other politically tinged blurb as if this is somehow helpful.

- Posted by James Nash - 2:13:43 PM - Comment? Rules: Criticize ideas? Yes. Criticize people for holding those ideas? No. []