From January 13 to 14, our annual workshop took place in the beautiful Ville de Neuchâtel, and more precisely at the Beau-Rivage Hotel ¦ Neuchâtel. It was organized with the St. Gallen Research Institute for International Management (FIM-HSG), in partnership with the CNCI – Chambre neuchâteloise du commerce et de l’industrie, the CCIG – Chambre de commerce, d’industrie et des services de Genève, the Swiss-Chinese Chamber of Commerce (SCCC), the Section romande de la Société Suisse-Chine (SRSSC) and Microcity – Neuchâtel Innovation.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐚, 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐃-𝟏𝟗 𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬.

During a day and a half, no less than 5 specialists shared their first-hand experience and expertise, each in their particular field: Nicolas Musy, Ling Meng, Patrick Ziltener, Clarisse von Wunschheim and Zhen Xiao. The whole was orchestrated by our Customer Relations Executive Romain Barrabas and the lessons of each day were drawn by our President Jean-Jacques de Dardel.

Despite the current circumstances, 33 participants were present, mainly c-level executives, representing 29 companies located throughout Switzerland and active in fields as varied as waste management, cosmetics and luxury watchmaking, as well as intra logistics, management consulting, dental implants, machine tool peripherals and even the Swiss pocket knife, to name but a few!

As it would be illusory to summarize in a few lines the numerous exchanges that took place, you will find here some punchlines that were heard:

❇️ China was the world’s technological leader from 8th until 15th century.
❇️ China manufacturing labor costs tripled in 10 years but exports keep rising.
❇️ In China, luxury goods sales increased 49% in 2020 but households’ consumption stagnates.
❇️ High-quality production technology imports are needed for localization.
❇️ Quarantine is here to stay.
❇️ The savings potential of the Sino-Swiss FTA for Swiss exporters is enormous and increasing every year.
❇️ The Chinese society is collectivist, but by necessity.
❇️ The wrong dispute can mean “China bye-bye”.