WCA July 2012

1991

1992

1993

1990-91

Creation of WCA (1 st media pre-launch)

1 st WCA website

1 st issue published

Wire & Cable Hong Kong launched

ASIA MEANS BUSINESS With a population in the region of two thousand million and investments in joint ventures manufacturing and production operations increasing at a rate fair in excess of USA or Europe the Asian market will, for the foreseeable future, be the forerunner

in our industry, and with regional offices in most Asian countries where the strength of the circulation and readership of WCA will prevail. This qualified commitment will bring to these industries a unique and informative publication, printed in the principal languages used in the technical industries with Asia, being English, Japanese and Chinese. We take this opportunity to welcome our readers in all South East hemisphere countries and applaud those companies who have the foresight to support our free distribution journal with advertising and gain the advantage of promoting their products and services to this rich and progressive market development area. Thank you for reading Wire & Cable ASIA and make sure you or your colleagues receive future copies by completing the free reader registration form contained in this and subsequent issues. transactions in China result from careful cultivation of ‘Guanxi’ with the Chinese partner by the foreign one, until a relationship of trust evolves. This was one golden hint my father passed on to me and last month, while turning the pages back through the 21 year-old first ever issue of WCA, I came to the advertisers index page and I smiled when I read through the list of auspicious company names. These were companies who also applied this foresight and as a result gained the early advantage of doing business within this fast growing economy. You may know some of them – you can still see them advertising today; Boxy SpA, Caballe, Fort Wayne Wire Die Inc, Gauder, Goodwin & Sons, The ICE Group, Microdia SA, Pourtier, Queins & Co, Ridgway & Co, Sikora, Sket GmbH, August Strecker, Tensor, Thermoplastics Engineering, Joachim Uhing, Wardwell and Wire & Plastic Machinery Corp. Over the following 21 years, with the commitment of these companies and our long-term loyal readers, Wire & Cable ASIA magazine has developed into the essential business read for Chinese and English-speaking wire and cable technologists across north and south-east Asia. Thank you for your many messages of support and congratulations, and we look forward to providing our clients and readers, old and new, with another 21 years of Wire & Cable ASIA. Sincerely, John C Hogg, Publisher

1992 2012

in production and consumption of many of the products represented by the wire and cable industries. Although there are no less than nine publications serving with wire and cable industries in Europe and the USA, only Wire & Cable ASIA provides this industry with a regular technical publication reviewing and reporting on all aspects of wire, cable, rod, rope, wire products, spring making, fasteners and similar precision parts made from wire within the geographical areas of North and South East Asia and Pacific Rim nations. Perhaps most important is that the publishers of Wire & Cable ASIA are supported by over 30 years’ experience IMPORTANCE OF GUANXI Working alongside my father during the creation and launch of the first edition of Wire & Cable ASIA magazine back in 1992, I should have known then that his incredible business foresight was already hard at work – he had a nose for these things, reaching into newly emerging markets and establishing a presence there for our industry. In Asia at that time, he was developing this networking further by producing the international trade show ‘Wire & Cable Hong Kong’ in 1993 and then two years later he created the hugely successful ‘wire Singapore 1995’ – a uniquely-timed international trade show whose concept was eventually passed on to Messe Düsseldorf GmbH and is currently staged by them in Bangkok, Thailand. Both of these trade fair events were fundamental in establishing the ground-breaking success of Wire & Cable ASIA magazine. What my father understood was that successful business relationships in Asia are cultivated by developing strong personal contacts. The logic behind this is simple. In highly centralised, bureaucratic states, the honourable business relationship is more valuable than the end transaction. This logical development of such close relationships is the Chinese concept of ‘Guanxi’. Virtually all successful

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Wire & Cable ASIA – July/August 2012