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Industry Insights: ICBC Standard - The Transformation to Digital Business

The second instalment of this year's Industry Insight programme was a talk on digital business from Mr Huihong Cai, the CTO of ICBC Standard.

ICBC

This talk was a continuation of the themes Mr Cai introduced in his talk last March. Some of my key take-aways included:

  • Digital is creating a winner-takes-all effect, because digital businesses can grow much quicker than physical ones and create "super platforms" for consumers that are channels for doing business rather than brands
  • Therefore the Silicon Valley VC model of backing lots of business knowing that 99% will fail but that the winner will win big makes sense
  • Lower barriers to entry in China (such as fewer regulations) mean that the market is more competitive and as a consequence stronger digital business models are emerging at a faster rate than in Europe and the US

Mr Cai's final point was that the business leaders of today may not have the knowledge to create these new business models - that may have to come from young people who are more familiar with digital tools.

Published 11 October 2018
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