Google Willing to "Shut Down" in China?

This paragraph from today's edition of the official Google blog says more about the recent past (as of yesterday) and coming future (as of... what time is it?) of technology and politics than just about anything you'll have found online in a while:

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered--combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web--have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

Nothing like hearing it from the horse's mouth.

Cloud Services Adoption in Asia-Pacific

It's the time of year when most business technology market research and consulting companies release their predictions for the new year. In its annual outlook for 2010, IDC predicts the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) spending and growth in the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region will reach $184 billion -- with a 7.7% growth over this year.

IDC predicts most growth will come from India and China, although all countries are expected to experience varying degrees of growth.

"While budgets are still tight, and the buying patterns may have changed irrevocably from what the ICT industry has been accustomed to, the fact remains that there is cautious optimism in the market with some interesting pockets of surprising growth," said Simon Piff, Head of IDC's Asia-Pacific Predictions Committee for 2010.

The net result of the economic slowdown has been an overarching change in how and why companies make new business technology investments.

Proven Technologies Ready for Adoption
IDC foresees projects that generate immediate ROI and tangible improvements in managerial and operational efficiencies will continue to be the ones that garner quick executive buy-in.

The key enabling technologies for 2010 are not necessarily new, as much as they are a more mature and robust implementation of proven solutions that have been available for a while.

Cloud Computing, last year's emerging focus area, will move from being merely a buzzword to a deployment reality -- as service providers address the challenges of providing managed cloud services and organizations realize the flexibility that these solutions can provide.

In fact, cloud services ranks number one on the “Top Ten key IDC predictions that will shape the ICT industry in APEJ in 2010.”

The Maturing of Cloud Services
According to IDC's assessment, service level agreement (SLA) options will improve. They believe that the combination of five-nines performance guarantees -- plus robust business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) capabilities -- will be the compelling new adoption momentum that accelerates cloud service growth.

In 2010, the large organizations that are ready to deploy managed cloud services will do so, demanding the same SLAs with BCDR capabilities.

IDC's annual predictions for ICT includes the latest research results from their 1000+ analysts. This insight was followed by an extensive regional review to weigh in on key industry events, typical user characteristics, vendor strategies and economic measures, that help define the technology trends which would impact and drive the ICT market in the Asia-Pacific region for 2010.

Lilly says David Ricks will lead US business

INDIANAPOLIS -- Drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. said Tuesday that David Ricks, who is now in charge of its Chinese business, will become president of the U.S. division on Nov. 1.

Ricks has worked at Lilly for 13 years, including managing operations in Canada and China, Lilly said. He will take over for Enrique Conterno as president of Lilly USA. Conterno will become head of the company's diabetes business as part of a reorganization announced earlier in September.

Lilly USA will be part of the established-markets business, which will be lead by Bryce Carmine. The established-markets business will focus on developed markets like the U.S., European Union, and Japan, and will handle marketing of heart and neurological drugs, among other products.

Eric Baclet, vice president of marketing over global neuroscience brands, will succeed Ricks to lead Lilly China.

The company is reorganizing into five business units: cancer, diabetes, established markets, emerging markets, and the Elanco animal-health business. The reorganization includes about 5,500 job cuts, or about 14 percent of Eli Lilly ( LLY - news - people )'s work force, by the end of 2011.

China News - eLong down, Ctrip up and Qunar in the money

Round of news coming out of the online travel scene in China tells and interesting story:

1. Number 2 player eLong posted its Q3 results. Good news started and ended with an reported increase in revenue. Bad news was that revenue was only up 12% and losses have widened from RMB2.7mm (USD365k) in Q3 06 to RMB 7.4mm (USD1mm) in Q3 07. Stock is almost half it was a year ago. New CEO Cui Guangfu has a big job ahead of them to catch up with...
2. Ctrip posted a great result this quarter - beating expectations - announcing an almost doubling of profits to USD15mm for the quarter on revenues of $46mm. In a clear dig at eLong, Ctrip attributed a lot of the credit for the results to rising travel demand. Shares are similarly moving the opposite direction to eLong. But any possible conflict in signals about the market from the different results between number one and number two in China did not dissuade...
3. Lehman Brothers Private Equity Partners dropped $10mm into local meta search player Qunar.com. It was Qunar's second round of funding. First round was in the $2-3mm range with Mayfield leading that round. UPDATE - here is the alarm:clock story including information that Qunar founders Douglas Khoo, CC Zhuang, and Fritz Demopoulos had previously founded and sold the CSEEK search engine to News Corporation and founded and sold the Shawei.com portal to The Tom Group.

Busy days in China.

China and India driving Innovation

Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan, in a key address at the 14th World Productivity Congress (WPC) held in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, emphasized the role of technology and innovation in China towards developing productivity and realizing sustainable development.

Selected references:
Leading eBook on Creativity and Innovation in Business
Creativity and Innovation Best Practices
Creativity and Innovation Case Studies
The Innovation Index
Top 50 innovative companies in the world

Zeng proposed that in order to "realize sustainable development, China should institute an advanced system of productivity which considers new technology industries as the pioneers, basic and manufacturing industries as supporting players, all of which will help the service sector develop to its fullest". Zeng even called for implementing the strategy of reinvigorating the country through science, education and trained personnel and building a system of innovation. Zeng proclaimed that such innovative systems will "ensure scientific development which help transform the mode of economic growth to achieve harmonious and sustainable development." Zeng also wants to reduce pollution and energy consumption so as to create a safer and cleaner environment for productivity to thrive.

The China drive towards innovation and productivity is consistent with Friedman's assessment in "The World is Flat."

In a separate news story, The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is planning to create a National Innovation Grid in India. CII in a partnership with Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (CFEL) of Cambridge University is proposing to set up a virtual network of information to drive innovation in Indian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The National Innovation Grid would act as a facilitator and driver for SMEs who can leverage the knowledge gained from CFEL and infrastructure capital from CII to create innovative new businesses. This has the potential to accelerate growth in the Indian SMEs.

"CII`s alliance with East of England International, a hi-tech cluster with Cambridge is focused at developing a model for linking small entrepreneurs and individual innovators with linking academia, research and development institutions, businesses as well as the government to facilitate innovation in the SME sector in India", CII President R Seshasayee said.

CII also launched a new program: "Towards 100 Indian `Billion $' MNCs" in partnership with Infosys. The program has a lofty goal of helping 100 new Indian Multi-National Companies achieve One Billion Dollars in revenue within the next ten years through an "ecosystem" of partners.

Bottomline

China and India are driving Innovation to develop productivity, create sustainable development, and achieve new business growth. Both countries are realizing the strategic importance of Innovation as they seek to create new economic growth in the future. New technology industries, SMEs and even Billion Dollar MNCs are on the horizon.

Selected references:
Leading eBook on Creativity and Innovation in Business
Creativity and Innovation Best Practices
Creativity and Innovation Case Studies
The Innovation Index
Top 50 innovative companies in the world

References:
Xinhua online
Zee News
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