Have you ever considered the following questions about your firm's situation: What stage of business evolution has your firm achieved? Is your firm oriented towards products, customers or today's problems? How does your firm assess its changing competitive environment? What kind of information base does your firm use in the decision-making process?

AmCham's meeting on May 30 provided some helpful information on the above questions. The guest speaker, Mr. Melvin M. DuPaix, currently teaches Management Consulting and Marketing Consulting courses to over 220 EMBA students at Nankai University. An economics graduate of Brigham Young University, Mel was the Market Research Director for Mitchell Energy & Development Corp. in Houston Texas for 20 years. His specialties include demographic analysis, site feasibility studies, employment analysis and consumer survey research.

In the beginning of his speech, Mr. DuPaix, who personally has a practical background with lots of business experience, raised three challenging questions for the attendees to reflect upon. " Where does your firm stand now?" "How does your firm view your market place?" " How can your firm grow and develop to be successful?"

The first part of his presentation was about the first question-"Where does your firm stand now?" Mr. DuPaix introduced the evolution of firms in detail. From the early stages of "goods for goods trading", he explained the six stages in business evolution. In particular, he gave the example of General Motors to illustrate the fourth stage when emphasis was placed on sales. The fifth was the "Marketing Department Stage" when the marketing department was more powerful than other departments and became the king of the company. The sixth phase was a market-oriented firm where everyone understands that customers are important to the success of their company, no matter the production manager or the general manager.

Then, Mr. DuPaix asked the attendees to think about their own situation. He gave advice on companies of different stages respectively.

The second part of the presentation was exactly like a lecture for MBA students. Mr. DuPaix gave each attendee a piece of paper entitled "THE FIRM: ITS ENVIRONMENT AND DIRECTION ON THE COMPETITIVE MARKETPLACE SEAS". He compared the firm to a ship and the competitive marketplace to the sea. He first gave a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the firm. The internal strengths include people, reputation, culture and brand. The internal weaknesses are systems, logistics and finances. The MIS (Management Information System) would do the analysis on these factors. The external opportunities include government controls, legal, political, social, cultural, macroeconomic, industry, cooperative and demand segments. The external threats are security, ecological, climatic, geographic, demographic, technological and competitors.

Mr. DuPaix then put his emphasis on the strategic plan, which is composed of six items. They are the Mission Statement, Basic Objectives, Basic Strategies, Competitive Market Plan, Implementation Plans and Follow-up Plans. Particularly, he pointed out that the last two items involve all of the firm's divisions and departments, as they answer the WHAT, HOW, WHERE, WHO, WHEN and WHY questions. In his conclusion, he stressed that " In today's marketplace the best probability of success lies with a market-oriented firm."

Last, Mr. DuPaix made his comments on Chinese Haier Group and Legend Group. He compared their different strategies for future development. Haier diversifies its products in every way and sales in more countries, while Legend seems to not place attention to geographic diversification outside China.
Mr. DuPaix's lecture aroused much interest among the attendees. They discussed their respective problems with him and asked for his advice.

It proved to be a pleasant meeting which was both informative and illuminating. Join us in the next gathering!