Strategy challenge – Kiwi Dragons

Strategy challenge – Kiwi Dragons

by Team C (Simon, Hugh, Jeremy, David)

As part of our mid-week strategy challenge our group was asked to take the Tiancun Station to a place known as the Higher Education Mega Centre.

Upon arrival we were greeted by a row of mostly abandoned shops, and little to be found within a 100 metre radius.

Undeterred, and utilising our keen sense of adaptability we pressed on despite our relative disorientation, and were fortunate to discover a shopping complex nearby.

Finding a place to eat proved interesting. After scouring the shopping complex for a sense of familiarity we eventually settled on a restaurant called "Originality Barbeque", which we would describe as a Korean-Chinese fusion cuisine against a pirate-themed backdrop.

The Korean cuisine meant much of our food was cooked right in front of us which made for a memorable experience.

Figuring out what to order and how to communicate our order was difficult. It is hard to express the sense of helplessness you feel when a task as simple as ordering a meal us is filled with so much uncertainty.

However, we were very fortunate to have a host who really went the extra mile to help make the experience as smooth as possible.

In an environment filled with several seemingly generic Chinese restaurants Originality Barbeque had effectively distinguished itself, especially to our group of foreigners, visually, on the quality of its service and its choice of cuisine.

This also meant its offerings were priced slightly higher than its competition.

Continuing our search for both novelty and familiarity we found an Adidas outlet store next to a local sporting store called Anta.

We were interested in how these two stores presented themselves. While Adidas is a recognised brand, we noticed that much of their stock was last season’s offerings and there were few staff to attend to shoppers.

On the other hand, in Anta each of our group members had our own staff member that attended to us, fashionable items were held in stock, and the interior design was visually stimulating.

The insight we gained from observing these two retail shops was that while any sporting brand competing with Adidas faces a tough challenge – Anta differentiated itself on merits over and above just the 'product', which translated to more interest and customers. This was a stark contrast to the empty Adidas store.

Overall, while the experience was bewildering at times, the strategy challenge provided our group a much needed, and appreciated, incentive to experience suburban China.