IE at the Shanghai World Expo

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IE is set to take part in the Shanghai World Expo, which is expected to receive 70 million visitors between May 1 and October 31. IE will be present at the beginning and close of the Expo in Spain´s Pavilion and the Madrid Pavilion, with activities that include the presentation of the Caso España case study.…

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The future of the Chinese economy

Academics

IE Focus | By Rafael Pampillón, Professor at IE Business School

One of the major landmarks of the 20th century has been China’s spectacular awakening, but the country now faces a series of challenges that will require deep change to maintain rates of growth.The economic boom in China is one of the most important events of the 21st century. The boom has come on the back of China’s great demographic potential (with a population of 1,350 million), its high internal rate of saving and the way it has opened up to the rest of the world, turning it into the biggest exporter on the planet. 

Since 1978 the economy has been gradually freed up and prices have been progressively deregulated. There has been encouragement for foreign investments and the private ownership of businesses has been made legal. In 2001, foreign trade was deregulated when it joined the World Trade Organisation. Since then, China´s trade relations with the rest of the world have grown spectacularly.

As pointed out in a recent article by Enrique Fanjul, former trade director of the Spanish Embassy in Peking, China´s economy still has an unquestionably high level of state intervention and state businesses continue to play a key role. However, it cannot be considered as a socialist economy: most of the production takes place under private-sector conditions and products are marketed at free prices. There is a tendency towards a growing importance of private players in the economic system

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Apple and Google in the headlines

Academics

IE Focus | By Ricardo Perez, Professor at IE Business School

Apple and Google go head to head in the race for mobile dominance. Apple is pushing for pay-per-click services while Google defends flat rates.Apple and Google have been making the headlines with revolutionary product launches these last weeks. American news programs once again held Steve Jobs up as as a champion of innovation, design, envy, advanced technology and anything else you might like to name.

Meanwhile, the boys at Google haven’t been idle. They have launched their own telephone to compete with the iPhone and Nokia and RIM (Blackberry) intelligent phones. What started out as a close collaboration and agreement between companies trying to “reinvent the game” in their respective markets is now morphing into direct competition. Their view of the growing convergence of communication networks, technologies and social behavior leads to collisions in key markets like content consumption, mobile technologies and entertainment. Let’s analyze their collision courses.

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