What’s the best way of predicting trends in a market that moves so fast?
Constant information and intelligence gathering using both internal and external suppliers of intelligence is the right approach. It is laborious to set up this solid foundation and requires significant training of internal teams as well working on an extended basis with a trusted external consultant but the combination of these two allows you to remain ahead of any large changes with your markets and competitors and to avoid risk as much as possible in an emerging economy. Being able to prepare for pitfalls or changes in the business environment is much better than having to react to those changes and multinationals are often disadvantaged in China on this front anyway since they often have longer decision making processes than their Chinese counterparts.
