The latest from China & Hong Kong

Martin Klimek, CFO at Synapticon, on turning a China sales office into a sourcing hub, hiring through trusted networks, and high-tech status.

This is the second episode in The China Experts series where the questions come from inside Woodburn rather than from an outside guest. Claire, Woodburn's marketing lead, puts the questions clients ask most often about employer-of-record hiring to Kristina Koehler-Coluccia, who has been on the provider side of the arrangement for years and is unusually frank about what it costs, where it goes wrong and when you should stop using it. Who is Kristina Koehler-Coluccia? Kristina

Ricardo Kiehnle of Zig Ventures on using cross-border e-commerce to test Latin American brands in China, rebuilding after a distributor collapse, and live-stream selling.

Paul McCourt of Hamilton Litestat on fighting a brand squatter, 3C certification, dormant-entity filings, and switching to distributors in China.

This episode of The China Experts breaks the usual format. Instead of an outside guest, Kristina Koehler-Coluccia is on the receiving end of the questions, put to her by Claire, Woodburn's marketing lead, and the subject is the one that clients ask about most and act on least: trademarks. It is also the episode where Kristina tells her own two trademark stories, one of which cost her three months and a company name. Who is Kristina Koehler-Coluccia? Kristina Koehler-Coluccia

In this episode of The China Experts, Kristina Koehler-Coluccia is joined by Daniel Bateman, a digital marketer, key opinion leader and podcast host based in Shanghai. Daniel took the entrepreneurial plunge the summer before this recording, which makes him something of a live case study: he is going through exactly the start-up phase that many of Woodburn's newly incorporated clients are in, and he is candid about the parts of it that are uncomfortable. Who is Daniel Bateman?

In this episode of The China Experts, Kristina Koehler-Coluccia is joined by Sissi Zhao, Partner at GoGlobal, in a rare episode recorded with both of them in the same room in Luxembourg. Sissi's work runs in the opposite direction to most of Woodburn's clients: she helps Chinese companies expand out of China rather than foreign companies into it. That reversal is what makes the conversation valuable, because the difficulties she describes in running a Chinese team are almost

Matt Wills of Floob Creative on why brand mascots beat logos in China, educating clients, and setting up a studio in Shanghai.

In this episode of The China Experts, Kristina Koehler-Coluccia is joined by Daniel Poppleton, International Director at Whittard of Chelsea. Whittard sells premium tea, coffee and hot chocolate, and China is its largest market outside the UK, which means the headline is faintly absurd and entirely true: a British company has built a tea brand in the home of tea. Daniel has spent seventeen years in Asia across three retail brands, and the conversation is unusually practical a

In this episode of The China Experts, Kristina Koehler-Coluccia is joined by Adam Sandzer, Head of Commercial Strategy at Hot Pot China. Adam spent the best part of a decade in China building Speedo's business for Pentland Brands, first from inside someone else's distribution company and later as part of the team that took the business direct. He had also been back in China the week before this recording for the first time since 2019, which makes the second half of the conver

Leanne Dal Santo of Surface Measurement Systems on incorporating in China faster than in Europe, corporate banking, and relocating staff.

Ryan Molloy of RedFern Digital on building a Shanghai agency, why marketing can absorb half of a first-year China budget, and localising a China team.

Manfred Steinkellner of Steinkellner China Search on his China journey, what foreign companies get wrong on their first local hire and why entity comes first.

Baptiste Basset, Managing Director of Shearwater Group, on his route into the Chinese market, the challenges he met there and his advice for new entrants.

Jimmy Robinson, co-founder and CEO of PingPong Digital, on building a career in China, founding a China media agency, and why brand building in China depends on your entity.

Ben Rotheram of the China-Britain Business Council on supporting UK-China trade, living in four Chinese cities and China's personal data protection rules.

Anne Guslandi on her Shanghai journey, the do's and don'ts of doing business in China, and helping expats and multicultural teams adapt to the market.

In this episode of The China Experts, Shlomi Mahfouda, Founder of Up 2 China, talks about his route into the Chinese market, why he chose to become an entrepreneur, and the challenges he has faced building a business there. Who is Shlomi Mahfouda? Shlomi Mahfouda is the Founder of Up 2 China. His work sits at the intersection of brand strategy and cross-border eCommerce, helping international companies reach Chinese consumers without necessarily starting with a full local ope

Jean-Paul Schmitz, Co-Founder of Asia Assist, on moving from the Netherlands to Shanghai, founding an eCommerce agency in China, and what he has learned helping foreign brands enter and scale in the Chinese market.