Unprecedented Era
　　This is an unprecedented era in human history for consumerism to process such a vast, fertile, willing and underdeveloped market existing across the world and China in particular today. Even more, this is also unprecedented that consumerist formats and business models are so maturely and simply structured to become the prototype for emerging market to follow, and international business is to be done in a free market competition manner rather than in Machiavelli menace. On the other hand, this may also be unprecedented that business is founded on abstract concept rather than evolving value to the consumers, and the business expansion is heavily pillared on bureaucratic apparatus rather than personal creativity. Rational calculation for short term gain is more prevalent than the development of long term and sustainable business foundation. Vision becomes a staple in resume writing although real visionaries had faded into the history.
　　China already ends its double digit GDP growth. The current model is destined to be shallow and unsustainable. Nonetheless, this is not the beginning of the end of China’s market growth, but is the opportunity for the start of a true consumerism to flourish in a consumerist market, to gain common sense back and for a market to be explainable and sustainable. The appetite of consumers looking for better, cheaper and more convenient has never been changed, so is business to compete and to be creative on providing such values to the consumers.
　　China is such a surreally large market. A healthy domestic consumer market can easily overtake export, real estate or government spending to be the core of economic growth. The show just starts.
　　Chinese – Natural Born Small Businessman
　　Chinese are natural born small businessmen. Their business mentality is rudimentary and short-term oriented. The new technology and new business model are always the bedrock for a business entity to grow substantially. So far, it is not the case in China. Chinese have not invented anything significant in the past thousand years, and are not entirely passionate to invent any now because intellectual rights still cannot be appropriately protected. China’s market growth is driven by its size, its backwardness and Chinese supple personalities to adopt and assimilate another culture. It doesn’t mean that a savvy, creative, focused and long-term oriented business cannot make immediate impact and return, but just that people’s minds are unsettled and are not interested.
　　More than too often, we meet successful Chinese businessmen with billions in asset but still run company as one man show. One of the most successful domestic cloths manufactures/brands from Zhejiang has astray from its core business into real estate and banking. China’s first public-listed food delivery company, FuJi, went bankruptcy after merely five years. The strategy and business planning become story telling. So many restaurant chains, instead to focus on the service and system improvement, get into food manufactures and supply chain. It is as hard to run a food manufacture as to run a restaurant chain, not to mention to operate real estate and a clothing manufacture simultaneously. On paper, we can make up a thousand stories from strategic points, but in reality, we as human have no capacity to do more than one thing or two well in life.
　　As a small businessman, one can be easily boasted by the current success to feel infallible, invest the next seemingly attractive to them and lost the focus, manage more than they are capable to manage, and control a wide business which drain all their energy and resources. China is growing so fast that the opportunities are abundant. That many people become rich and wealthy doesn’t mean they have good business practice, and neither do they understand why become successful and feel secured. People are after money not business although it is business eventually keeping their wealth. Buddhist temples become popular in rural China. The major themes at the temples are health and wealth, and the message can be quite blunt to the deities on what people are asking for and why people donate money at the first place. It is definitely not for redemption or elevation. Chinese are realistic to an extreme that sometimes it may appear to have no baseline when come to make money. Even more, China’s general business environment especially in its legal and regulatory system is not entirely supportive for the transaction from small to bigger business, rendering short-term business practice even necessary.
　　Despite of all the shortcomings, domestic enterprises are still the soul of China’s market growth. At the frontline, they know market and consumers better than anyone. Because the global market is so integrated, it is unlikely the market will wait for domestic entrepreneurs to become mature through years of competition. Foreign information matters to China, so is the foreign investment and their experience. To polish a rough diamond requires a skilled craftsman.
　　Invest in the Fundamentals of China’s Consumer Market:
　　China is a perfect place for a text book investment, and the hurdles are how to read this text book in order to connect necessary concept with exact values it provides, and the details to accomplish. For an investor or operator, one is to visualize what consumers want at what price buying where under what kind of image and buying in what kind of fashion, then know how to use the current global resources and technology development to deliver such values to the consumers, and set level of playing field high enough in order to ward off immediate imitators. It is not possible to happen in America 50 years ago, but can happen in China today. Despite of all the difference, the market fundamentals are the same. It is outright important to remember the doctrines of these founding members who establish the current global market models in order not to go astray from the core of a business.
　　It is hard to make a text book investment work without comprehending the content of a textbook. It is understandable if a domestic Chinese cannot comprehend how a successful foreign business succeeds. As said, information can become misinformation if only read it superficially. However, for a foreign investment and especially a corporate investment into China’s market, they seem to have the same problems as Chinese do. Their bureaucratic apparatus is to run a current business model but not to create one. The creators may have already long gone, and the general business environment and its maturity are far apart between China and the Western countries.
　　For instance, fast food chain has proven to be a very successful business concept selling at inexpensive price, industralized preparation, relatively good quality and standardized operations in a clean environment. It has the power to change people’s eating habits. No matter of what you sell, as long as price is right and business operates well enough, a fast food business can always find a niche in a large consumer market. In China, KFC is becoming more expensive than ever. Despite of its vast success, it is very much a reflection of a peculiar character unique to China. High price is fundamentally against fast food concept. In this regard, the market challengers to KFC have abundant opportunities. The problem is that China’s domestic operators have trouble to create their own business models, and KFC’s imitators are flourishing by selling nearly the same menu. For a true text book investor or entrepreneur, one needs grip the fundamentals of fast food concept without coerced by the prevalent view. KFC may have its reasons to be expensive and to be successful, but it is not the one to set a prototype for China’s domestic fast chain business to take off as an industry. This is not a crusade to promote fast food chain concept but a true business concept so obviously being misled by the misinformation. Again, for a fast food concept, it is not about what one sells, but about if one can offer a category of foods capable to follow the definition of fast food concept to deliver its true values to its consumers.It can be applied to other sectors in the consumer market as well.
　　The shortcomings for the most of the domestic investors and operators are that they don’t invest much in technology, have troubles to read text book investment despite of their superior ability to imitate, and have little appetite to pioneer a business model. They will compete on cheaper price and lower quality once if a business model is already working. Because the bar of the entry is low, it always leads to a price war or quality issue. After the initial success, many of these operators will be likely to astray into other business. In a traditional evolution market, it is not a problem because it takes years of competition to eliminate unfit ones. China’s consumerism takes off so fast that, in return, it wastes a great deal of natural resources and investment on wrong direction and runs so inefficiently. The competition is necessary, but in this age of information and technology, the competition should be elevated onto another level. Even for an emerging market, its goal should not be to chase what others already have, but to create new and fit in its own dynamics.
　　Investment is not only to generate return but also to progress a business and a society, running it more efficiently, delaying the deterioration of environment, and generating values. Only if an investment can attach something substantial to it, it has a purpose to be sustainable. The purpose can be as pioneering as Apple’s new technology to enhance customer experience in a new information age, but can also be as traditional as Dunkin Donuts to make daily life more enjoyable and convenient for its constantly tasty coffee and donuts. For a business should not lose the sight on its purpose to its consumers and the society, and of course, on its business fundamentals.