5/28/12 Lishen and Famous Service Brands in China

To start the day off we went to Lishen Battery Co. instead of class like usual. This was one of my favorite tours that we have had so far because this company sells and makes batteries for almost every appliance from cars to mobile phones. It was very interesting to find out that Lishen was founded 1997 and has grown so much in the last fifteen years. Lishen has grown from an annual capacity of 5 million in 2000 to an annual capacity of 500 million in 2010 and is now one of the top five battery manufacturers in the world (now that's impressive)! Also during this tour I experienced my first earthquake which was quite an interesting experience in itself luckily it was not very big. I really enjoyed this tour and I was amazed by the success of this company and I will definitely keep Lishen in mind when I start my career. After this tour we had our fifth lecture with Professor Yang Kun about the most famous service brands in China. We learned about Mcdonalds and KFC's success in the Chinese market which was very interesting because these food chains are using different strategies in China which has made them very popular. Some of these strategies include having a comfortable environment (Mcdonalds) and having healthy policies in place (KFC). We also learned about companies that haven't been so successful such as Best Buy. It was interesting to find out that the Chinese value low cost more than good service which is why Best Buy did not do very well when it tried to expand into China, but I think it kind of the same way in America now especially with the introduction of online retailers. Overall, I found this lecture very interesting and this was one of my favorite days here in Tianjin.