How Should We Prepare for the China International Import Expo?
Ji Lude, November 29, 2018.
The question of why the CIIE should be held discusses its reason for existence from the source. The question of what kind of CIIE should be held observes its presentation from a cross-sectional perspective. The question of how it should be prepared considers the development path of its working system from a vertical perspective.
Management has five major functions. The first is planning, and the second is organizing. In real life, many projects have good plans but ultimately fail because, after clarifying why something should be done and what should be done, they do not properly solve who will do it and how it will be done. For example, the fallen-leaf show that opened on Fuxing West Road in Shanghai on November 24 seemed to me a typical case in exhibition projects where symbols determine thinking and design interferes with ideas. I do not know what the planners were thinking when they connected Fuxing West Road with the Belt and Road, Arab culture with the Belt and Road, and camels and dancers with Arab culture, eventually turning a stylish old Shanghai street into something strange. Using artistic means to add cultural atmosphere to the city in line with natural seasonal patterns was originally a good idea, but the path was wrong and the result was the opposite of what was intended.
Mao Zedong once pointed out that after the political line is determined, cadres are the decisive factor. This is an important methodological guiding idea. The success of the Chinese revolution needed this in the past, and the success of exhibition projects today also needs it.
The development of the CIIE working system is an internal matter, and many details are not clear to an outside observer. The CIIE had a tight timetable and heavy tasks. It can be imagined that the preparatory team advanced the work with relentless effort and extreme care. Therefore, commenting on the preparation path always feels somewhat like criticizing from a comfortable distance. I first offer an apology to friends at the CIIE Bureau.
Discussing problems in the path is intended to make future editions better. This requires identifying problems. Before the event, I heard friends say that foreign exhibitors reported unclear participation information; information requested by the CIIE Bureau often had to be provided by the next day, but when exhibitors had questions, they often could not find anyone to answer. When professional visitors needed to register, the website crashed, and people who wanted to visit could not enter. Others said that because the cost of participating in the CIIE was relatively high, some local exhibitions began using CIIE fee standards as an excuse to make money.
Of course, these are observations from a very small scope and may not be fully on point. There is no doubt that the first CIIE was basically successful, and this article does not make an overall evaluation. The examples above are only intended to introduce the following suggestions.
First, establish a unified command chain.
A management system should avoid excessive layers and multiple sources of instructions. The CIIE is a national project held locally. It is therefore important to establish a clear command chain. At the central level, the organizing committee should be responsible for major decisions and for coordinating national-level diplomacy, foreign affairs, publicity and security. At the Shanghai level, an executive committee should coordinate functional responsibilities of the local government. Then comes the operating organization, whether it is called a bureau or a group company. The essence is the same. These three organizational levels should connect directly through to implementation. Too many lateral branches are unfavorable to unified command.
Improvement in this area has great significance beyond the CIIE itself. In April 2015, the State Council issued Several Opinions on Further Promoting the Reform and Development of the Exhibition Industry, known as Document No. 15, the highest-level government document on the exhibition industry so far. It clearly requires strict regulation of government-run exhibitions at all levels, reduction of fiscal funding and administrative participation, gradual expansion of government purchase of services from society, and establishment of an exit mechanism for government-run exhibitions.
At present, several national-level exhibition projects are distributed across provinces and municipalities, especially in China's neighboring provinces. These exhibitions have both economic and diplomatic significance. They need national-level guidance and coordination, but actual preparation and hosting often rely on local governments and require market-based operations. If every project is operated by government departments, especially central government departments, it is not realistic. How the CIIE improves the relationships between central and local authorities and between government and enterprises has general significance.
Second, organically integrate core business and support work.
The core business of an exhibition project is exhibitor recruitment, buyer invitation and forums. Their success is reflected in whether exhibition scale is large, content is compelling and transactions are successful. Whether these activities proceed smoothly depends on support work, including publicity and promotion, services for exhibitors and visitors in dining, accommodation, transport, tourism, shopping and entertainment, and the human, financial and material resources needed for support.
In practice, core business and support work are closely connected and form an organic whole. First, support work must always understand what the core business needs, rather than wait to be called upon. Second, core business and support work do not correspond one-to-one. One core business often needs several forms of support, while the smooth operation of one support area may affect several core business areas. Third, core business and support work often become causes and effects of each other. Certain mistakes in core business may need support work to compensate, while the success of support work affects the next stage of core business. Therefore, dividing so-called core business and support work into two organizational systems reduces efficiency and increases operating costs. In the end, many meetings must be held for coordination, and large amounts of manpower and funds must be invested to ensure that work milestones are not delayed.
Because the first CIIE had a tight schedule, many special arrangements were made, many meetings were held and considerable resources were invested. This should not become normal practice.
Third, value information system construction.
This work has three levels of meaning. First, there must be clear internal communication channels: who is responsible for submitting what reports, to whom they are submitted, and which departments receive what information. Unified statements are also needed, such as answers on foreign-related security work and service standards. Norbert Wiener, the founder of cybernetics, believed that communication is the cement that holds the social building together. When communication is smooth, the work system will naturally be efficient.
Second is internal and external communication, including how exhibitors and visitors can quickly find communication entrances and how to answer questions that citizens care about. This is a necessary precondition for obtaining external resources and winning support from exhibitors, professional visitors and the broader public around the world.
Third is the intelligence system, mainly the establishment of a big data system. It should quickly understand reporting and sentiment about the CIIE in media and social networks of different languages around the world, handle public relations crises in time, and avoid only becoming aware after negative public opinion has developed to a certain stage.
There can be much discussion about the preparation path of the CIIE. Personally, I believe that if the three key points of organization system, working mechanism and information system are grasped and continuously improved, then however many problems arise in the future, they will not be difficult to overcome.
