Elaine Ann

How to Innovate for the Next Trillion Dollar Market in China?

Categories: Business, China, Digital, Hong Kong, Innovation, Strategy

Elaine Ann is the Founder and Director of Kaizor Innovation, a strategic innovation consultancy that helps companies strategize, research, and define innovative products and services for the China market. Born and raised in Hong Kong and having lived in the U.S for 12 years, Elaine’s bilingual, bi-cultural and international background helps companies understand and strategize new product and services for the China market.

She is a veteran of the early dot-com era in the mid 90’s having lived and worked in the U.S. for 12 years. She has worked for companies such as Razorfish, Philips Design, Henry Dreyfuss in New York, Silicon Valley and San Francisco and have designed the User Experiences of some of the very early Internet/technology businesses such as Schwab.com, Intuit’s Quicken, the first Philips MP3 player and Philips Networked Home etc. in the 90’s.

Kaizor’s clients ranges from Multi-nationals, Asian companies, SMEs to Startups: Google, Airbnb, DropBox, BMW DesignWorksUSA, Intel, Motorola, Siemens, Herman Miller, HP, P&G, Hyatt, Cartier, Carl Ziess, Dow, Wellington Fund, SapientNitro, iSentia, Design Continuum, Lunar Design, OSIM, Changhong, Yongxin, Jardines, Hang Seng Bank, HK Post Office, GoAnimate, Wisers, Darizi, Airgini, Micai, Legends Education etc.

Elaine also trains executives and students alike on New Product/Services Innovation and User Experience. Elaine is the User Experience Instructor of the Google EYE (Empowering Young Entrepreneurs) Program of Chinese University in Hong Kong in 2014 training up 400 Entrepreneurs on User Experience and Design Innovation.

She is currently the Honorary Project Director for the Centre of Entrepreneurship of the Chinese University and is in the Cyberport Expert Network mentoring Tech Startups on User/Customer-Centric Innovation and User Experience (UX) as well as mentor at The Cage of Lane Crawford Joyce Group, Blueprint and Cocoon. Elaine is also on the Advisory Committee and taught at two of the major design schools in Hong Kong: the Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design and the Hong Kong Design Institute. She also teaches the Executive Masters in Innovation Leadership at PolyU School of Design and MBAs at HKUST on Lifestyle Innovation. In 2014, she setup the WOW-X User Experience Bootcamp to train up both Startups and Designers bridging to Angel Investors. And in 2015, organised the UX China Tour visiting 18 Chinese companies in 5 China cities including Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, WeChat etc. Recently, also organised the Experience Digital China – 1 Day Shenzhen Live Class to introduce the latest mobile/digital lifestyle in China that impacts many business decisions.

She was also the Vice Chairman of the Hong Kong Designers Association in 2012-2014 and active member for the past 10 years. She is currently one of the core organisers of IxDAHK Interaction Designers Association of Hong Kong and the association has expanded since 2006 to currently 2000 followers on Facebook/Meetup Group.

Elaine graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a BFA in Visual Communication Design and Masters in Interaction Design. She is also an EMBA alumni of the Cheung Kong Business School (Beijing) and Stanford Executive Education Design Thinking Bootcamp’s alumni.

For Western Companies

How China and the West Tech Ecosystems Works Differently?

Most of the world is accustomed to the Western Tech ecosystem such as Google, Facebook, Amazon etc.. However, did you know that China has its own Tech ecosystem such as Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi and is just as big and growing outside of China.

In the 1980’s China’s economy was only 1/20th of the U.S., today it is over half the size of the U.S. economy and growing. If the way we have been developing have been based on the Western culture, how are things different when we have to design for users stem from a very different culture and background? Especially when Chinese consumers are traveling globally as leading consumers, how will that affect the way we strategize for products for the China market?

How to Innovate for the Next Trillion Dollar Market in China?

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, China will become one of the most important emerging markets from now until 2050. Getting ready for the world’s largest market is one that neither start-ups nor large corporates can afford to miss.

Xperience Innovation™ will equip your team in understanding the nuances of designing and strategizing for the Chinese market as well as offering a tried and true methodology that works for fast-paced emerging markets.

Learn how to design and innovate for the next trillion-dollar market
Understand China’s business landscape, political and cultural contexts
Understand user’s needs and translate these insights into new product or services innovation
Equip your team in understanding the nuances of designing and strategizing for the Chinese market

For Hong Kong Market

How can Customer-Centric Innovation / Design Thinking transform your business?

Why “Design Thinking – a Stanford D. School innovation methodology and Customer-Centric Innovation is integral in the digital and workplace transformation? Why Customer Experience is a must in today’s fast changing economy? How Design Thinking can help your company innovate?

This talk will help uncover how companies use Design Thinking to transform their businesses and more importantly how it can work for the

Hong Kong/China market based on our speaker’s 17 years of experience implementing it in Asia. More importantly its organizational culture that will need to transform to be able to act agile and become innovate to adapt to market changes.

How to make User/Customer Experience work for your company?

Does having a Customer Experience department mean that your company is customer-centric? How do you know if your company is doing User/Customer Experience the right way? What kind of measurable results can you garner to demonstrate effectiveness?

This talk will share how User/Customer Experience work in multi-national companies such as Google, Airbnb, DropBox, Intel, Siemens etc. and share with the audience our 17 years experience of implementing it in HK/China on what works in Asia or not and how cross-disciplinary collaboration and corporate work culture change is needed to come up with the ultimate user/customer experience.

Elaine Ann has a remarkable understanding and expertise on how to innovate for the Chinese consumers, ensuring global business success through Xperience Innovation. With her impressive background and know-how in connecting East and West, she is able to analyze, connect and strategize on any market; understanding the Chinese consumers and innovating for growth globally. Her Asian focus makes her unique in her field, and through design thinking and a human-centric approach, she creates her landmark Innovation methodology to guide businesses of all kinds to thrive.
~ Cristina Ventura, Chief Innovation Catalyst of the Lane Crawford Joyce Group

It is so important when innovating for the China market to not assume that the same strategies that were developed in the West, for Western startups and corporations, can be applied wholesale. Elaine Ann’s deep and broad understanding of China and her expertise in working with designers, engineers, product managers and user researchers gives her an unparalleled perspective on how to successfully develop products for the world’s most dynamic market.
~ LiAnne Yu, PhD. Anthropologist and journalist, Author of Consumption in China: How China’s New Ideology Is Shaping the Nation

It really changed our perspective about what it means by “customer-centric” and how we can get a real insight on customer experience. We improved our process to deliver products based on this way of innovation.~
~ Amy Jun Liang, CEO of Visual China Group, China

Elaine is my go-to source for doing work in China, and this book is an outstanding resource for doing product development in a market filled with as much nuance as North America and Europe combined. This is not your typical “1 billion Cokes” observation on the potential of the Chinese market. This is a detailed primer on how to develop products in the world’s most misunderstood and critical market.
~ Robert Murray, Global Associate Partner, IBM iX

Elaine Ann

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