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As July closes out, the Olympic torch will finally arrive in London after spending the last two months on ceremonial duty travelling through the UK. More than 1000 villages, towns and cities will have been visited and the flame will have been transported within 10 miles of 95% of the UK population. Now, with the build up at its most heightened state, the familiar global corporations bombard every inch of advertising space possible to demonstrate to consumers just how much the Olympics mean(or more the point ‘owe’) to their brand; Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Lloyds TSB, Adidas, BT and Cadburys chocolate are all determined to capitalise on the buzz and excitement – although whether this ‘buzz’ is from the Olympics or from product promotion to a worldwide audience is unclear!
This poses the question do small local and national domestic businesses benefit from the Olympics in the same way that the multinational corporations appear to do. Is the Olympics good business for everyone? For Beijing, and China, I would argue that this was and continues to be the case.
There is absolutely no doubt that the Olympic Games have helped to increase China’s profile and to open it further to the world. From my own observations in the UK, media attention on China has grown exponentially from a limited pool of often analytical articles tucked away in the business pages of the more serious newspapers and journals to the devotion of the ‘mass media’. A day does not go by without news stories and features on China catching the eye.
This transformation started with Beijing’s opening ceremony, a breathtaking commercial and cultural showcase that conveyed to many not only China’s considerable advantage in the labour market but also the professional excellence and organisational capability in planning and building of infrastructure that China and Beijing, e.g. two new ring-roads, had achieved in the seven years since the Games were awarded to them.
Importantly the Chinese government realised that improvements needed to be made across the country as a whole so that Beijing’s legacy would remain impressive and would not be compromised from those fearing they would miss out on investment and attention. – If the capital was perceived as ‘advanced’ but areas such as Qingdao where the sailing events took place appeared‘backward’ by comparison, then the games would not have been such a success. It was important to use Beijing’s win to showcase China as a whole. Everything from telecommunications upgrades to the erection of English language signage has done much to improve China as a location to do business. It has also shown prospective investors that locations outside of Beijing and Shanghai are also worth considering for their business.
In 2009 and 2010 I travelled widely across China and found doing so was simple - despite not speaking much Chinese at the time. I visited the Olympic site of the‘Bird’s Nest’ stadium and noted how it had become widely used by the community at large since it’s construction – at that time it was enjoying a stint as a ‘snow theme park’and has gone on to hold an array of sporting and music events since.
Crucially, the Beijing Olympics provided an important platform for foreign businesses. Take food and beverages for example. Now, wherever you are in China, even the smallest of independent stores on street corners stock imported products, whether they are American soft drinks, Korean snacks or European biscuits. The Games played an instrumental part in creating the conditions to liberalise trade with the result that wholesale and distribution companies have been able to diversify and realise new opportunities in a vast market. That is not to say these products would not have been in place without the influence of the Olympics, but the Games are widely acknowledged to have been an important and timely catalyst.
However, in a country that is already considered among the most developed in the world will there be a similar rise in business start ups and in the number of companies who decide to locate offices and ply their trade in England’s capital city? Well, one Chinese company has already decided to do so. Huawei- which was allocated several large telecommunication contracts for the Beijing games – has announced that they would set up European design headquarters in London.
The firm London & Partners also expect more to do so, last year they found that the majority of companies who were already located in London were positive about the commercial legacy the Olympics would leave and over ninety percent were ‘consistently satisfied’ with London as a location for their businesses.
Perhaps the London Games also offer a different opportunity to businesses. While Beijing offered an insight and portal to a market with enormous consumer opportunities, London on the other hand provides a rich vein of experience and expertise. It is possible that companies such as Huawei and others who have benefited from the Beijing games will now see London as their next step.
This poses the question do small local and national domestic businesses benefit from the Olympics in the same way that the multinational corporations appear to do. Is the Olympics good business for everyone? For Beijing, and China, I would argue that this was and continues to be the case.
There is absolutely no doubt that the Olympic Games have helped to increase China’s profile and to open it further to the world. From my own observations in the UK, media attention on China has grown exponentially from a limited pool of often analytical articles tucked away in the business pages of the more serious newspapers and journals to the devotion of the ‘mass media’. A day does not go by without news stories and features on China catching the eye.
This transformation started with Beijing’s opening ceremony, a breathtaking commercial and cultural showcase that conveyed to many not only China’s considerable advantage in the labour market but also the professional excellence and organisational capability in planning and building of infrastructure that China and Beijing, e.g. two new ring-roads, had achieved in the seven years since the Games were awarded to them.
Importantly the Chinese government realised that improvements needed to be made across the country as a whole so that Beijing’s legacy would remain impressive and would not be compromised from those fearing they would miss out on investment and attention. – If the capital was perceived as ‘advanced’ but areas such as Qingdao where the sailing events took place appeared‘backward’ by comparison, then the games would not have been such a success. It was important to use Beijing’s win to showcase China as a whole. Everything from telecommunications upgrades to the erection of English language signage has done much to improve China as a location to do business. It has also shown prospective investors that locations outside of Beijing and Shanghai are also worth considering for their business.
In 2009 and 2010 I travelled widely across China and found doing so was simple - despite not speaking much Chinese at the time. I visited the Olympic site of the‘Bird’s Nest’ stadium and noted how it had become widely used by the community at large since it’s construction – at that time it was enjoying a stint as a ‘snow theme park’and has gone on to hold an array of sporting and music events since.
Crucially, the Beijing Olympics provided an important platform for foreign businesses. Take food and beverages for example. Now, wherever you are in China, even the smallest of independent stores on street corners stock imported products, whether they are American soft drinks, Korean snacks or European biscuits. The Games played an instrumental part in creating the conditions to liberalise trade with the result that wholesale and distribution companies have been able to diversify and realise new opportunities in a vast market. That is not to say these products would not have been in place without the influence of the Olympics, but the Games are widely acknowledged to have been an important and timely catalyst.
However, in a country that is already considered among the most developed in the world will there be a similar rise in business start ups and in the number of companies who decide to locate offices and ply their trade in England’s capital city? Well, one Chinese company has already decided to do so. Huawei- which was allocated several large telecommunication contracts for the Beijing games – has announced that they would set up European design headquarters in London.
The firm London & Partners also expect more to do so, last year they found that the majority of companies who were already located in London were positive about the commercial legacy the Olympics would leave and over ninety percent were ‘consistently satisfied’ with London as a location for their businesses.
Perhaps the London Games also offer a different opportunity to businesses. While Beijing offered an insight and portal to a market with enormous consumer opportunities, London on the other hand provides a rich vein of experience and expertise. It is possible that companies such as Huawei and others who have benefited from the Beijing games will now see London as their next step.