Forum focuses on China's e-biz

Exhibits of Ancient Egypt may not come to mind as the ideal location to discuss the Internet, but to the Wharton School it seemed practically perfect. On Wednesday afternoon in the University Museum's Harrison Auditorium, the Global Chinese Business Initiative held the second forum discussion in its "East-West.Com Series." The program, entitled "The eRevolution in Greater China Business" brought together nine panelists from various Internet firms on both sides of the Pacific. Ming-Jer Chen, the founding director of the GCBI, also introduced and took part in the panels. The first of the three panels, "View From the Top: The Challenges Facing the DotCom CEO," took a look at issues from the more general -- like attracting talented employees and earning and maintaining revenue -- to the more specific, like what it takes to run a dot-com in Greater China and the relationship between companies in China and the United States. Alan Choi, managing director of the Greater China offices for Korn/Ferry International, moderated the six-member panel. Participants included Andrew Miller, the vice president for the North America office of Chinadotcom Corporation, and Doug Woodring, an executive vice president of Rebound.com, a marketplace for businesses to sell consumer goods. The panelists fielded questions from Choi and the audience for 45 minutes. In the fast-paced marketplace that is the Internet, one panelist said, maintaining profits is a concern. "When you start a company, you have to sprint to make revenue," said Michael Robinson, CEO of Renren.com. "Once that is achieved, though, your business needs to be run more like a marathon." His company is the first multi-lingual provider of Internet services to citizens of China. The kind of talent needed to run such a marathon is just as important. "The competition comes from people themselves who want to start up their own companies," added Hurst Lin, whose company, Sina.com, offers online news to Chinese communities. Particularly relevant to the relationship between Internet business between the United States and Asia, the panelists agreed, is time. "Anyone who has insomnia has an advantage," Miller said, referring to the difficulties of operating in a trade that is not confined to business hours or time zones. To finish the first panel, the group offered advice to students about what they can do to prepare themselves to enter such a competitive field. Although none of the panelists could give a set formula for success, they agreed on two things that every aspiring CEO should have: intelligence and accountability. Many students took the time after the presentation to talk to the panelists and try to make some useful connections. Being able to meet with the panelists provided a wonderful opportunity to gain references," College sophomore Shirley Yu said. "It was also reassuring to note that all of the panelists were very young." After a short break, those assembled broke into two groups to discuss the topic further. One panel gathered in the Upper Egypt Gallery of the museum to look at establishing a business-to-business presence in China. The moderator of the panel was China Online Managing Editor John Thomson, who brought Wang and Woodring together with Peter Oelbaum of Sparkice.com. The other panel stayed in the Harrison Auditorium to discuss investment strategies and trends in the Greater China region.