Written by APCA Staff


In China, Taiwan and even Vietnam, it is fair to say that no Mid-Autumn Festival would be considered complete without some scrumptiously delicious Chinese Moon Cakes.

And much to our surprise, or at least James's surprise, the Chinese Moon Cakes and assorted gift packs found at Starbuck's in China is just, well, heavenly.

In other words, Starbucks China does Chinese Moon Cakes right.

We received these Starbucks Moon Cakes from a client in China and as you can see from the photos below, it's clear that they are amazingly packaged, produced and let us tell you, that they taste delicious.

The gift pack comes with a  very nice outer bag,  a well-constructed sturdy box (you can feel the heft) which features a metal, magnetic Starbucks logo clasp to close the box.

The box contains four different types of Moon cakes, each is individually wrapped along with an insert card explaining each one.

There is also a certificate of manufacture/authenticity.

As you may know, if you've read our blog or newsletters for any length of time, but in China this is a very important aspect of not only ensuring and enforcing product quality but perhaps more importantly of assuring and assuaging consumer fears.

We've posted similar things about this from Hong Kong where some supermarkets will tout  "Product Authenticity Guaranteed" (i.e,. "We don't sell fakes! Only the real thing!") versus what may be seen in Japan or parts of the West were the signage boasts "Low Prices" or "We're The Low Price Leader".

To be clear, this is not any criticism of China or even Hong Kong, Hong Kong is employing a smart consumer marketing and protection strategy and within China, China is going through many growing pains and strains.

And as Asia-Pacific Coaches and Consultants, we should rejoice, because it is exactly these growing pains and strains that continue to give us wonder opportunities to help others in need while providing for our family and friends.

Happy & Successful Coaching!

The Starbuck's China Moon Cake gift pack comes packaged with a  very nice outer bag. 

The Moon Cakes are expertly yet delicately housed in a well-constructed sturdy box (you can feel the heft) which features a metal, magnetic Starbucks logo clasp to close the box.

The box contains four different types of Moon cakes, each is individually wrapped along with an insert card explaining each one.

There is also a certificate of manufacture/authenticity.

Here's a closer look at these four lovely, tasty beauts. 

The insert card on the left explains each delicious Moon Cake. The certificate of manufacture/authenticity is on the right.

This certificate is a very important aspect of not only ensuring &enforcing product quality but perhaps more importantly of assuring and assuaging consumer fears.

Close-up of the insert card describing the delectable selection of Moon Cakes in the gift box.

Close-up of the certificate of manufacture/authenticity.

As we've been predicting for some time now, China's robot sector has exploded.

This isn't surprising as the continually rising cost of Chinese labor had been pegged in some quarters as being 25% to 33% more expensive than Mexican labor -- which is a huge difference when one also factors in time zones, shipping costs and local control.

As such, many American and Canadian firms have moved their manufacturing, especially higher-end manufacturing (think Cisco Systems) to Mexico over the last 3 to 4 years.

In response, China has moved heavily into Factory Automation, including robotics. This helps hold the labor wages down...but at what cost?

Currently in China there are huge wage gaps and wealth inequality and now fully mechanization is coming on while a true middle class has never had a chance to arise.

This is much different from what was seen / has been seen in the maturation of both Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the major Western economics.

According to International Federation of Robotics, nearly 180,000 industrial robots were sold worldwide in 2013, with a fifth of those sales being in China.

In 2013, China surpassed Japan for the first time to become the world’s biggest and fastest-growing robot market with sales of about 37,000 industrial robots .

Experts predict that China’s robot market will grow to be more than one trillion yuan in a year or two.

The Lucrative industry has attracted many investors who’re diving in. In Shanghai, a robot industrial park is currently under constructionan that’s expected to generate and send out around 60 billion yuan worth of products. Parks of the same scale are also being built in the cities of Shenyang, Qingdao and the municipality of Chongqing.

While this signals trouble and bumps ahead for many workers, it also shows how fast the Chinese economy is maturing and developing and will certainly lead to many consulting and coaching opportunities now and in the very near future.

Industrial robots, whose market in China is showing promising signs as workers get replaced due to higher labor costs. A lot of domestic robot manufacturers want to join the party and slice a piece of cake with foreign competitors. But they seem to be facing a tough road ahead.

It’s a common scene in many Chinese factories.

"Before the robots took over, there were seven workers working in this assembly line," Li Guolin, vice president of Air Conditioner Department, Midea Group, said.

Efficient, working 24-7, no need to talk, eat, or drink, and best of all, you don’t have to pay them.
There are more benefits to having robots working for you. They don’t get hurt.

"The injury problems are solved, and efficiency is improved," Sun Zhiqiang, president of Guangzhou Ruisong Technology, said.

And they take care of the labour shortage.

"It’s very hard to recruit workers in a hard working environment such as the chemical and steel industries, so there’s a lot of space for industrial robots," Zhou Chaosen, deputy secretary of Guangzhou Federation Of Robotics, said.

All of these reasons explain why the robot industry in China is seeing a great increase in recent years.

According to International Federation of Robotics, nearly 180,000 industrial robots were sold worldwide in 2013, with a fifth of those sales being in China.

In 2013, China surpassed Japan for the first time to become the world’s biggest and fastest-growing robot market with sales of about 37,000 industrial robots .

Experts predict that China’s robot market will grow to be more than one trillion yuan in a year or two.

The Lucrative industry has attracted many investors who’re diving in. In Shanghai, a robot industrial park is currently under constructionan that’s expected to generate and send out around 60 billion yuan worth of products. Parks of the same scale are also being built in the cities of Shenyang, Qingdao and the municipality of Chongqing.

It’s not all good news though. According to International Federation of Robotics, more than 90% of the industrial robot market in China is dominated by foreign companies, and the key parts of robots for the rest less than 10% of the domestic market are made outside of China. For domestic robot manufacturers, they face a lot of challenges such as lacking key technologies and competition from foreign businesses. There is a lot to do to take up the lucrative, young market in China.

By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, SiliconEdge / Executive Director, Asia-Pacific Coaching Alliance


If it seems that we're under a constant barrage of the Western Media Myth (WMM) that (a) Japan is "failing" and that (b) this "failure" is primarily due to Japan's "talent problem" don't fret because we are.

Further, we are told that Japan's supposed "lack of talent" has manifested itself in such as way as to be responsible for Japan's supposed "lack of creativity" and "lack of innovation"".

.....
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As I have argued for over a decade now, these claims and even statistical comparisons by the Western Media are not only useless but downright dangerous (to those that want to fully understand Japan) as they ignore the real root causes of Japan's underperformance.

The Asia-Pacific Coaching Alliance's Co-founder and Managing Director, Hank Chin, is featured in the top-tier Chinese language magazine called  “Learning & Development” which is focused on talent transition and personal development.

《能力雜誌》：一本屬於專業經理人的雜誌（Learning & Development）經管第一品牌，能力雜誌解決企業人力資源運用疑難雜症，把負債變資產 鑑別未來人才！

http://www.cpc.tw/Magazine/Content.aspx?MagNo=697&ColumnNo=77&AtricleNo=2756

By James Santagata
Executive Director, Asia-Pacific Coaching Alliance; Principal Consultant, SiliconEdge

We'll folks, we're already almost half way through February and it's just amazing to consider how fast this year is moving.

There are so many challenges and opportunities within the dynamic Asia-Pacific and greater Asian region that it's hard to keep up!

This becomes more complex and nuanced when we consider that the region is comprised of highly developed, newly developed, developing and newly developing economies, each with its own strengths, weaknesses, obstacles, opportunities and challenges.

For instance, while China is fighting a devastating pollution and environmental problem as the US, Japan, Britain and others have before her, she also has been busy moving forward on other fronts.

For instance, consider that China has now become the world’s third-largest research article producer behind only the European Union bloc & the United States.

In fact, China spent a greater share of global R&D, based on total dollars invested, than that of the United States.

Further, it's hard to imagine that the economies of China & other Asian countries together had more than one-third of the world's total US$1.435-trillion spending on R&D in 2011.

http://www.nature.com/news/china-becomes-world-s-third-largest-producer-of-research-articles-1.14684

As the developing regions of Asia become newly developed, new leadership skills will be critical. We are seeing this with the fantastic success of Korea on the world stage now.

Overcoming leadership challenges through coaching (Korea)
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2014/01/331_134702.html

Meanwhile, certain highly developed countries in the Asian region, such as Japan, have become brittle and ossified, making leadership again critical if they are to successfully re-invigorate, rejuvenate and reboot their economy.

Lastly, it should be obvious to all, that better leadership development is critical to the Asian region's long-term growth and we at the Asia-Pacific Coaching Alliance (APCA) have made it our mission to do our part. 

Won't you join us?

By Hank Chin
Director, Asia-Pacific Impact Coaching Alliance

Backgrounder To Writing The No.1 LinkedIn Book In Chinese

Since I have dual roles in personal branding and job campaigning, it's always my desire and need to keep abreast and study trends as well as look into what the future may hold.

And some time ago, after signing up for LinkedIn very early (it still wasn't very popular then), I have high expectations of its potential and so I invested my time to learn LinkedIn's new functions and how best to use them.

It was clear to me that LinkedIn was a future star.

LinkedIn is a very good platform to connect with like-minded people from around the world, and if it is used well it can be a very powerful tool with which to build your personal brand.

So I stuck with LinkedIn, and then about 3 years ago LinkedIn started really growing rapidly, especially after the job search function was integrated into the original interface.

It was at this time, that I thought that it was great timing to introduce LinkedIn to the Chinese-speaking world. From there, I invited a friend to write a book with me on the subject.

Innovative Content Plus Thinking Structure

Since very few people in the Chinese-speaking world had a clear idea of what LinkedIn, I spent the beginning of my book introducing the important and essential functions of LinkedIn to help readers quickly become familiar with LinkedIn.
                                                                (continued below)

I also clarified the difference between LinkedIn and a professional résumé, which confused many people at the time and which still confuses many peopel today. From there, I shared my knowledge and experience on how best to use LinkedIn to connect with both domestic and overseas jobs. 

Throughout the book, I focus on the practical rather than the theoretical by presenting 7 real cases studies about jobs searches, business collaboration and recruiting, all of which happened to me and to the other author. 

I also share my perspective about networking on LinkedIn, the Quality vs. Quantity argument. And I developed and presented a LinkedIn connection grid (LCG™) to help you understand which type of connection strategy would work best for you based on your circumstances. 

Our LinkedIn Employment Flow (LEF™) is included in the chapter on job search strategy. In it, we teach you how to integrate your LinkedIn profile and professional résumé into your job search flow to pursue the job of your dreams. 

After reading LEF™, you'll have a clear structure of conducting job searches on LinkedIn.

In addition to this, I also map out an 8-week personal branding plan to help you build your personal brand through LinkedIn. By establishing your personal brand gradually, you will have a good chance of landing a job of your choice far earlier than expected. 

Personal Branding And My Future Plan

In general, writing a book is not that hard, but writing a book that contains valuable content is extremely hard and it takes a lot of time to accumulate the proper data and materials.

As I coach people on their personal branding, I firmly believe my book will help shape part of my personal brand in my target audiences’ mind, and this shape can be good or bad, which is why I am so careful with it to ensure that I am always building a positive personal brand in their mind. 

I really enjoyed writing this book and I hope to reach as many people with this book as possible. So far, I've been lucky that this book has been one of the bestsellers in the job search sector in the Chinese-speaking world. 

But, I'm still working hard to promote it and with LinkedIn getting more and more attention in Asia, I believe the book can be highly useful for people who want to learn how to leverage LinkedIn in their careers and professional lives. 

I will keep focusing on my core profession as it relates to job searching, coaching, job search marketing materials, personal and employer branding, career coaching, and the Asia-Pacific Coaching Alliance to bring a positive impact and message to our audiences and members.

I hope you can leverage your LinkedIn network and create more opportunities through it. And while you're at it, don’t forget to sign up for APCA, where you can get more practical tips and strategies to jumpstart or supercharge your coaching career or personal coaching practice.

About Hank Chin:
Hank Chin is a Director of APCA, the Asia-Pacific Coaching Alliance, and also a Principal of Hank Spencer the Top Rated LinkedIn Consultancy in Taiwan and Great China.

http://www.hankspencer.com

APCA's Executive Director, James Santagata, is interviewed by Howard Lim (Asia Biz Blog) about coaching, communication and talent acquisition for Japan and Asia business success.

Full article: http://asianbizblog.com/video-interview-3-tokyo-career-success-coach-james-santagata/

Today’s author is Hank Chin who is an Expert Personal Branding and Career Consultant at IPIB and Director of the Asia-Pacific Coaching Alliance.

Hank is the No.1 certified job campaigner and personal branding strategist in the Chinese-speaking world, having earned 5 career-related credentials and prides himself on high customer satisfaction.

Change From Inside
As the No.1 certified résumé writer in the Chinese-speaking world, I pride myself on crafting my clients’ résumés and sharing tips on how they can use them more effectively.

The use of a professional résumé has definitely helped them land the interviews of their choice.

However, if they truly want to advance their careers, they will soon find that they need more than just a résumé, because resumes are always just a tool for landing an interview.

Recruiters Hire People, Not Resumes.
So if IPIB really wants to effectively be the clients’ strategic partner and help them land their job of choice and even develop their careers, we should be working with them from the inside out ─ on concepts and mindsets─and then we should be complementing these intangibles with professional marketing documents.

It means we should be reshaping their mindsets, planting the seed of personal branding, and motivating them to achieve their goals.

That is why I decided to be a coach.

What I Do
I learnt my coaching skills and knowledge from mentoring by some global senior coaches as well as through my work experience and formal study.

Before accepting a coaching client, I first try to determine if my clients are coachable and ensure that we have enough mutual trust.

Mutual trust is critical. Since coaching is purely person-to-person work, mutual trust is critical to whether or not we have a strong foundation and it is decisive make sure we have a successful coaching outcome.

If either the client or I don’t have one or both of these, then the coaching process will be less effective, perhaps even breaking the coach’s (my) reputation. So knowing your clients in advance is very important.

What I Like About Coaching
I really enjoy the feeling of hearing clients say they got invited to interviews and especially that they landed a job after receiving coaching training and the creation of a professional résumé.

It’s a BIG sense of accomplishment!

My passion is to help people in Asia fulfill their potential in their daily work.

As Steve Jobs said,“Great work comes from people loving what they do.”So if I can help more people do what they enjoy, their chances of creating great work will increase.

And then their passion and work will benefit their families, communities, countries, eventually all of Asia. Asia will thus grow organically, leading to more opportunities for her people.

My Beliefs
Living a successful and meaningful life that you define for yourself is not that hard, but it’s not that easy either.

A great coach will stand by you, inspire you, and motivate you, but in the end, you still have to ACT for yourself. You can achieve whatever you want as long as you start taking your first step, which will lead you to your future success in the end. 

Learn more about Hank Chin

We would like to welcome Hank Chin as a Director of our organization.

Hank is the No.1 certified job campaigner and personal branding strategist in the Chinese-speaking world, has earned 5 career-related credentials and prides himself on high customer satisfaction.

Using achievable methods, he assists small- and mid-sized business owners in constructing their personal brands, fulfilling their career goals and broadening their business opportunities with a clear “who-I-am”.

In 2013, Hank authored the No.1 LinkedIn book in the Chinese-speaking world, guiding people how to connect with more international talent and opportunities as they further their career goals in a digital way. He takes pride in doing his best to help each professional have a wonderful career and realize their dreams.