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The future is already here, it is just very unevenly distributed.”
In William Gibson’s 1984 science fiction book Neuromancer, a down-on-his-luck cyberhacker hired for one last job, faces off with an intelligent computer. When asked by The Economist in 2003, how he predicted artificial intelligence in 1984 when computers were not even yet widely prevalent, Gibson blithely quipped, “The future is already here, it is just very unevenly distributed.” Gibson’s sentiment is that progress is happening all around us, it is just not always visible from where we might personally sit. Further, if we dig into these pockets, we can crystal ball gaze and somewhat reliably predict the future.
Somewhere in the world, there are pockets of innovation we do not see with people designing futures filled with technologies and experiences we cannot imagine. This is China. China has emerged as one of the most advanced and technology-driven markets in the world with a cashless society driven by world-leading digital ecosystems. The future is here, and it is in China.
It’s Time to Copy China
As we all race towards brighter futures, it just so happens that China is innovating more rapidly and with more social and commercial impact than the rest of the world. International business leaders often watch China’s progress with a mixture of curiosity and distrust, and our politics reinforce this perspective. Granted, there is undeniable evidence of China’s “copycat” business practices—and yet, there’s equal evidence of China’s ingenuity in scaling and capitalizing on invention. We have to make room in our perspective for both truths: that China can be both copying and innovating, quite successfully. What if we stripped away the judgments, ignored the politics, and took a page out of China’s playbook to learn from their real stories of success? In other words, what if we copied China? Not necessarily to beat them, but to, at very least, join them in the next great innovation revolution.
10 Repeatable Models to Chinafy Innovation
Chinafy is a thought-provoking book to guide Western business leaders in understanding and applying 10 key principles for innovation that Chinese businesses have been quietly and successfully implementing for years. These 10 lessons serve as catalysts for how to Chinafy innovation for growth and can be used to unlock business potential anywhere in the world. The 10 Chinafy catalysts come from the unique ways Chinese companies approach problem solving, the way the culture thinks, and very real case studies of success in China.