End of cheap China and growth in a digital age: What Sri Lanka can learn 

Sri Lanka Design Festival’s South Asian Apparel Leadership Forum presents Ben Cavendar: Principal, China Research Group- one of the world’s leading strategic market intelligence firms in China. It is an institute recognised for thought leadership, and most famously its founder - the author of many books including ‘The End of Copycat China & the Rise of Creativity, Innovation, and Individualism in Asia’. 

China continues to be a big force as a threat and an opportunity, always in constant flux but continuing to make its mark. Ben Cavendar who works with the author of the wonderful book ‘No More Cheap China’ is set to discuss how China strategised to become the factory of the world from poor quality manufacturing to a customer focused, market driven manufacturer and retailer, how China embraced the ever changing technology landscape to leverage growth and excellence, how Chinese companies are diversifying in to unrelated areas and building global business power houses. The Transformational challenges for China in achieving the above and how they strategised to get will be an important part of Cavendar’s discussion.

Over the last decade China’s fashion industry has changed tremendously. With rising disposable incomes, urbanisation and an increase in domestic consumption – demand for apparel has increased substantially. China is not just a consumer- it is also a producer. With new takes on apparel tech and leveraging on the value maker of design, China is exploding with brands and retailers within an interesting influx of international fashion luxury good as well. China’s fashion industry is set to become the world’s second fashion market by 2020, and will account for about thirty percent of the global fashion market’s growth over the next five years according to reports. In 2020, total fashion sales in China are expected to be triple their current level, rising to more than RMB 1.3 trillion ($200 billion). With this kind of scale, magnitude and force, China is not a force that Sri Lankan apparel industry can ignore, whether as a competitor or more importantly, as a market. As the local industry prepares to set foot into new futures driven by new B2C opportunities and retail of resident brands, lessons to be learnt from China will be extremely important. It is in this context that the 2016 edition of the South Asian Apparel Leadership Forum(SAALF) will aim to enlighten the industry on what can be learnt from China to hack growth in the digital age. Ben Cavendar the principal at China Research Group will be the specialist flown down to Sri Lanka to shed light on this topic at the seventh successful edition of the forum held at Sri Lanka Design Festival this November.

From the cheap factory to a new world order

It wasn’t too long ago that ‘Made in China’ was synonymous with the idea of cheap products from a sweatshop in the outskirts of Shanghai. Today, a new breed of Chinese manufacturers are getting international attention for the exact opposite- high quality products considerate of sustainability, design and modern aesthetics as well as tech integration have come into the market and it’s only the beginning. Although this shift seemingly happened overnight, this wasn’t the case for China. 

Ben Cavendar the principal at China Research Group will speak at SAALF and discuss how as the Chinese domestic market exploded in numbers over the past two decades, businesses there had to make a call to elevate their game with design, tech and other value additives. Cavendar’s discussion will highlight how Chinese producers, brands and retailers have come a long way from the cheap product identity after years of competing and understanding how to cater to shifting markets and the importance of speaking the language of a new-age consumer that transcends borders. An analysis of this transformation and the strategies that underlined discussed by Cavandar at SAALF will provide an important learning opportunity to the local industry to understand how the correct identification of market shifts and value additions can transform an industry.

Changing the tech landscape

Even in the age of its ‘cheap factory’ identity, there is no debate that China made technology accessible to a vast portion of the Asian market, both in and out of the country. Delving deeper into this topic, Ben Cavendar will discuss how, by giving almost everyone in their domestic and regional markets a taste of technology, China, probably accidentally, created a market for its future as Chinese tech producers evolved to create better streamlined, functioning and designed products. However, the shift to make better designed, durable and reliable products was no accident; understanding that new markets are prepared to pay the price for better products, the Chinese makers invested in design, manpower and consumer research which transformed their technology completely. Today, Cavandar will highlight, how this shift has paved the way for China to have a dependable tech infrastructure to rely on as their other industries leverage on technology to step into the future. China’s e-tail market for fashion alone is predicted to outgrow itself in the next three years to swallow a major portion of the region. Ben Cavendar will highlight how China is making clever use of its tech infrastructure and integrating it with almost all other industries to make reach beyond its already massive domestic market to maximise possibilities across the world. 

Leveraging everything design

Cavandar will also present an important point on how China is leveraging everything design to speak the lingo of the modern consumer- an important learning point for the local apparel industry which is beginning to integrate design as a value maker for their business here. Although the world has seen long seen China as a market of producers, and imitators, Cavendar assures that this is no longer the case; this is especially important as this particular shift to incorporate design into product, whether fashion or otherwise, is an important aspect of China’s shift from a cheap manufacturer to a modern industrial power. Those who have been paying close attention know that exciting things are happening in China. From being a producers market, China is slowly shifting to being a creator’s’ market. Designer brands that excel both in fashion and sustainable solutions are up and coming and they are not only conquering the Chinese market but  expanding to a worldwide audience thanks to the power of the digital realm: what happens in China, no longer stays in China. Cavendar will explore how this single factor is continuing to change the face of China as an industrial nation and how exactly the country’s businesses invested in nurturing creativity and design thinking for their benefit. 

As China emerges as Asia’s largest economy, fashion consumer market and manufacturing power, SAALF takes a look at what makes the industrial strength of the East-Asian nation. The insightful session by Ben Cavendar the principal at China Research Group will be a rare opportunity to get an informed viewpoint into what we can learn from this massive economic superpower. The main focus for the forum as an audience is Sri Lanka’s apparel industry. The forum has been designed to most benefit audiences such as C- Suite executives/CEOs/entrepreneurs/business owners/young leaders of family-owned businesses/leadership teams and apparel manufacturing entities/apparel industry associated organisations and industries such as the software industry, logistics and others as well as future young leaders in business.

As the Lankan apparel industry looks to enter into an age where there are massive new age opportunities to harness, the South Asian Apparel Leadership Forum will play the role of providing thought leadership through an informed transformative strategy. This will be an essential contributor to help propel industry into the future. The forum, with its fresh insights and ground-breaking thought leadership, will engage the local apparel industry in a global dialogue on ‘transformation’ on 5thNovember at SLECC, as part of the annual Sri Lanka Design Festival.

The event is endorsed by the Joint Apparel Association Forum. If you are interested in learning how to harness some of today’s most creative and future-facing thinkers, be shown a glimpse into the future to see what you would not normally see and also be shown how you could do things differently to envision your competitors reaction, this forum is for you. What would you say? Sounds like a good forum to attend?  The South Asian Apparel leadership forum is for the benefit of Sri Lankan industries – don’t miss out! 

The future is here. For tickets, login to www.srilankadesignfestival.com and buy online or for more information, contact the SLDF secretariat on 076 342 7772, 5867772-3 email [email protected] or just walk in between 9am-5pm to the Sri Lanka Design Festival Secretariat at AOD, 29, Laurie’s Road, Colombo 4.

Sri Lanka Design Festival as an overall event will take place on 4th, 5thand 6th November at SLECC Colombo, with AOD in partnership with DIMO hosting Mercedes-Benz Fashion Runways, Coats Thread – official thread and zip partner, GT Nexus – official technology partner, HNB- Official Banking Partner, Mount Lavinia Hotel- Official Host,  Wijeya Newspapers Group- Print Media Partner, Just-Style – International Media Partner, Free Lanka-Official Beverage Partner , Secquoro – Business Transformation Partner, Salon Kess - Official Hair & Make up Partner and We Are Designers as well the key apparel industry participants MAS, Hirdaramani, Timex, Star Garments , LICC, MRC, Nor Lanka, Orit, Innovative Knits, EKKO, Union Apparel, Penguin, Lanka Leather, Rakshaa, , Textured Jersey, Avirate and Vogue Tex. The event is endorsed by the Joint Apparel Association Forum.