中国公司能创新吗？--Kaifu Lee

Can Chinese companies innovate?

中国公司能创新吗？

 

The pictures above are the "FourGreat Inventions" of China: paper, compass, printing, and gunpowder, Thousands ofyears later, the Chinese seem to have become laggards in innovation.  Somesay Chinese are just copycats.  Can Chinese companies innovate?  Ithink the answer is yes!

上图是中国的“四大发明”：造纸，指南针，印刷术以及火药。几千年以后的今天，中国好像在创新上落后了，有些人说中国人只会山寨。中国的公司会创新吗？我想我的答案是“会”！

First, we need to have a broader definition of "innovation". When people say "innovation", they are often thinking ofparadigm-shifting innovations like the best of the Apple or Google products. It's true that these types of products are less likely to come from China, but actually there are many other types of innovationthat China can excel at: 

首先，我们需要给创新一个更广义的的定义。当人们说创新的时候，他们常常指的是那些革命性的创新案例，就像苹果或者谷歌的最好的产品。像这样的产品确实在中国出现的可能性比较小，可是中国却能产生很多其他方面的创新：

• Localize & iterate: Taking an western product and localizing it, gradually adding elements of innovation.  After many iterations, the product becomes innovative (example: Tencent QQ learning from ICQ).
• 本地化&迭代：将一个西方的产品拿过来，然后将其本地化，慢慢的加入一些创新的元素。经过很多轮的迭代，这个产品就变得非常具有创新性（例如：腾讯QQ对于ICQ的创新）。
• Cross-domain integration: Integrating multiple good ideas and creating something new out of it (example: Taobao combining the eBay auction and Google AdWords, Alipay combining PayPal wallet and escrow.com protection).
• 跨领域集成：把几个好主意集成在一起从而创造出一个新的东西（例如：淘宝结合了ebay的拍卖和谷歌的关键字广告，支付宝则是将PayPal钱包和escrow.com的担保支付）。
• Business innovation: Finding ways to maximize profit (example: freemium model in gaming was first popularized by Giant Interactive).  This is a natural result during China's stage of development -- entrepreneurs and businessmen are largely driven by monetary goals.
• 商业创新：寻找利润最大化的方法（在市场上自由竞争的观点第一次被大的企业所接受）。这个是中国发展的必然结果—企业家和商人很大程度上被经济目标所驱使。
• Need-driven innovation: "Necessity is the mother of innovation."  Yuan Longping's hybrid rice is a good example -- the government funded research in areas of the greatest need -- in this case hunger from the Cultural Revolution days.
• 需求驱动型的创新：“需求是创新之母。”袁隆平的超级稻就是一个很好的案例—政府在有巨大需求的领域设立基金并进行研究—这个例子里面的需求就是在人类进化旅程中的饥饿感。

The above types of innovation fit well with the Chinese culture andheritage -- they require iterations, experimentation, dedication, andcombination.  And they are result-driven (as opposed tocreativity-driven).

以上这几种创新模式非常适合中国的文化以及传统—他们需要迭代，实验，奉献，以及集成。他们是结果驱动的（和创新驱动相反）。

Other areas where Chinese may extend innovation include:

中国人能够延伸创新的其他领域包括：

• Areas where the Chinese government heavily subsidizes.  Alternative energy may be the most likely such area.
• 中国政府重点资助的领域。能源领域就是这样领域。
• Innovation that can be derived by exhaustive experimentation -- possibly pharmaceutical area.
• 可以由大量的实验而得出结论的领域—制药领域可能是这样的领域。
• Innovation which requires solid foundation and extreme hard work, as opposed to risk-taking and thinking out-of-the-box.
• 那些需要切实基础以及艰苦劳动的领域，与那些风险承担和跳出盒子的思维。
• Western-trained researchers leading Chinese teams, with potential for ground-breaking innovation.
• 经过西方教育的研究者领导中国团队，拥有彻底突破性的创新的潜力。

Americans are likely to lead China (and the world) in paradigm-shift innovations, but China may well become a top leader in most other types ofinnovations.  The non-paradigm-shift innovations may be less glamorous,but they are more pervasive and less risky.  As a result, China will reap great economic benefits from innovations inthe coming decades.

美国人好像正在把中国（世界）引向范式转变的创新，可是中国可能在其他领域的创新中占据领导地位。非范式转变的创新可能看起来没有那么炫目，可是他们却更普遍深入，风险性也更小。所以，中国将在未来几十年的创新中获得最大的经济利益。

In the next few days, I will illustrate "Chinese innovation" bycovering some innovators and innovative products.

在未来的几天中，我将继续通过几个创新者和创新产品演绎“中国式创新”。