Consulting firm riding the high-tech wave

Frost & Sullivan is embracing innovation to enhance research capabilities, deliver optimized business solutions to partners

Editor's Note: The Chinese government has adopted a series of measures to boost economic growth, including stimulating consumption, further opening up to foreign investment, supporting private enterprises and encouraging technology innovation. China Daily asked senior executives of well-known multinational companies to share their views on the country's economic development and their companies' business strategies in China.

China has rolled out a series of measures to stimulate consumer spending and boost economic growth. What opportunities are there for your business?

Since the introduction of economic reforms in 1978, China has grown to become the world's second-largest economy and an engine of global demand. As part of a wider effort to stabilize economic growth, the Chinese government has unveiled a series of measures and incentives to activate the domestic consumer market.

In fact, China has achieved true global scale as a trading nation, but not in other areas such as finance. The policy to promote the development of the financial industry has created substantial opportunities for professional companies like Frost& Sullivan. As a consulting firm, we help companies to transform and scale business activities in order to explore untapped growth opportunities by leveraging our competitive edge in diversified service scenes and service quality. For instance, we are able to offer a wide spectrum of quality and value-added services to our clients, including but not limited to strategy and growth consultancy, commercial due diligence, and product entry and market positioning consultancy.

Overall Chinese economic growth has slowed, but the topline numbers remain relatively robust. In what areas do you plan to increase investment or employment?

Though the world's second-largest economy is expanding at its slowest pace since the early 1990s, China's economy still remains resilient and sustainable. Throughout the years, China has transited away from a growth model driven by investment toward one that is more dependent on domestic consumption. Beyond that, the government has adopted a 10-year plan to accelerate the development of high-tech industries.

Riding the high-tech wave, Frost & Sullivan has established two research institutions in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, and Nanjing, Jiangsu province, in the past two years, focusing on areas such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, aiming to lay down a solid foundation for realizing the full potential of inclusive growth. In the future, we will continue to invest more in new technologies to strengthen our competitive advantages.

What do you see as the most resilient part of the Chinese economy and how do you plan to align your business with it?

From our point of view, the most resilient part of the Chinese economy is its solid and sound macroeconomic foundation. Since the Chinese economy is in the midst of an extraordinary structural transformation, with a manufacturing-driven model giving way to a robust services-driven model, a slow yet desirable overall GDP growth has laid a solid foundation for sectors ranging from traditional brick-and-mortar companies to high-tech startups to continue to achieve sustainable growth.

How has your company adjusted to the uncertainties brought by trade frictions between China and the United States?

In general, we remain optimistic on the ongoing US-China trade dispute since the two largest economies appear to have reached a fundamental understanding on the key issues and the broader benefits of friendly relations recently. From a global perspective, Frost & Sullivan has 45 offices and almost 3,000 consultants throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, ensuring that clients receive global coverage and perspective based on regional expertise. And we are not affected much due to our localization strategy.