在中國創業的法國商學院畢業生

The enthusiasm of Fanny Gobé and Maria Paloma Fuentes is palpable. Riding high on the initial success of their summer collection of children’s clothes, the two French business graduates are planning their next sales moves, both online and through multi-brand boutiques.

芬妮•戈貝(Fanny Gobé)和瑪麗亞•帕洛馬•芬特斯(Maria Paloma Fuentes)顯得熱情洋溢。憑着在兒童夏裝領域試水成功的勁頭，這兩位法國商科畢業生正在制定下一步銷售計劃，目標是在網上銷售，同時也在經營多個品牌的時裝店進行銷售。

The chic edge-to-edge jackets, Bermuda shorts and berets would probably look at home on the rails of Printemps or Galeries Lafayette. Yet their start-up company, Mini Bobi, is not based in Paris. It is in Suzhou, a couple of hours’ drive from Shanghai.

時髦的開襟上衣、百慕大風格的短褲和貝雷帽，這些看上去或許像是法國巴黎春天百貨(Printemps)或老佛爺百貨公司(Galeries Lafayette)會陳列的商品。然而她們的初創企業Mini Bobi並沒有設在巴黎，而是在距離上海不到兩個小時車程的蘇州。

The two Skema alumnae are among the growing number of French graduates who are looking for their first job in China. One catalyst has been the rush of European business schools to establish campuses in China, run joint degree programmes with Chinese universities and set up internship programmes in Beijing and Shanghai.

越來越多的法國畢業生在中國尋找他們的第一份工作，這兩位來自法國商科聯盟國際商學院(Skema)的女畢業生就是其中兩個。出現這股潮流的一個原因是，歐洲商學院紛紛在中國開辦校區、與中國大學合作開設學位課程，以及在北京和上海開展實習項目。

What is more, the growth in the Chinese economy, together with the low cost of entry in cities such as Shanghai, has resonated with graduates worldwide who want to be entrepreneurs.

另外，中國經濟的增長再加上在上海等城市的進入成本較低，讓全球各地那些希望成爲企業家的畢業生們產生了共鳴。

The real advantage of China, though, is simply the scale, says Ms Fuentes. “The opportunities are much more attractive here than in France. If you come up with a new idea it will be really big.”

然而，芬特斯表示，中國的真正優勢就是規模。“這裏的機會要比法國更吸引人。如果你有新的創意，那就真的會很牛。”

The Mini Bobi clothing range, which combines Parisian style with the stretchy materials and copious waistbands needed by the increasing number of obese children in China’s cities, was the brainchild of Ms Gobé.

Mini Bobi服裝系列將巴黎風格與彈性面料以及寬鬆的褲腰等特點結合起來，符合中國城市裏越來越多的肥胖兒童的需要，這些是戈貝的點子。

After studying fashion and business in Lille and Shanghai, Ms Gobé completed a gap year in the US and decided to write her thesis on the plus-size market.

她先後在法國里爾和中國上海學習時裝和商科，之後在美國度過了一個間隔年，並決定撰寫有關大碼服裝市場的論文。

“In this thesis I made a comparison between the market in the US and China. [Previously] I wasn’t aware of this market,” she says, adding that in China there are 120m obese children under the age of 18.

她表示：“在論文中，我比較了美國和中國的市場。（以前）我對這個市場並不清楚。”她補充稱，中國18歲以下的肥胖人羣有1.2億人。

In the city of Shanghai more than 18 per cent of children at primary school are overweight — the same percentage as in the US, she says. “I was surprised when I realised [this was the case],” she says.

在上海，超過18%的小學生超重，與美國一樣，她表示。“當我意識到（這種情況）時，我吃了一驚。”

Enthusiasm for all things Chinese spreads well beyond entrepreneurs, says Nick Sanders, director of the Masters in International Business at Grenoble Graduate School of Business. Of the section of the MIB class that spent a year in Beijing, many are enthusiastic about working there.

格勒諾布爾高等商學院(Grenoble Graduate School of Business)國際商務碩士課程負責人尼克•桑德斯(Nick Sanders)表示，對一切與中國相關的東西表現出熱情的絕不限於企業家。該校國際商務碩士班在北京開設的爲期一年的課程中，很多人希望在中國工作。

“Ninety per cent of them actually want to stay in China,” says Mr Sanders, although practically, only between a quarter and a third will get their first job on graduation in the country. A further 50 per cent will be employed working with China in some capacity, adds Mr Sanders.

桑德斯表示：“他們中90%的人確實希望留在中國，”不過實際上，只有四分之一到三分之一的學生會在中國找到畢業後的第一份工作。他補充稱，另有50%的學生會從事與中國有關的工作。

“They tend to be employed where there needs to be an understanding between China and another country.”

“他們往往走上需要對中國與另一國家之間的情況有所瞭解的職位。”

Entrepreneur Matthieu David-Experton, an Essec graduate, who also studied for a second degree at the Guanghua school at Peking University, is now on his second business venture in China — he sold the first, a packaged gift business, after 18 months.

企業家馬蒂厄•戴維-埃克斯佩東(Matthieu David-Experton)是巴黎高等經濟商業學院(Essec)畢業生，他還在北大光華管理學院攻讀過第二學位，如今他在中國專心打理他創辦的第二家公司。在創業18個月後，他就出售了他的第一家公司（一家包裝禮品公司）。

His three-year-old market research company, Daxue Consulting, has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, with a third office planned in Hong Kong. It has 15 employees but by the end of the year he plans to have a staff of 20 and revenues of Rmb7m ($1.1m).

他在3年前創辦了市場調研公司DXR(Daxue Consulting)，在北京、上海都有辦事處，還計劃在香港再設一個辦事處。公司現有15名員工，但他計劃到年底將員工數量擴大到20名，營收達到700萬元人民幣（合110萬美元）。

“What I have always done in China is take a model that works well in Europe, then adapt it.” Most of his clients to date have been international companies looking for information on the China market — western nursing home groups, eager to take advantage of the changing Chinese demographics, have been strong clients. That is changing. “Chinese companies are now looking for better information on their competitors.”

“我在中國一直做的是採用一種在歐洲行之有效的模式，然後加以改變以適應這裏的情況。”迄今爲止，他的大部分客戶都是希望獲得中國市場相關信息的跨國公司——尤其是那些渴望從中國人口結構變化中獲利的西方養老產業集團。這種情況正在發生變化。“中國企業如今正在尋找關於競爭對手的更完善的信息。”

For Mr David-Experton there are clear advantages to working in China, particularly the flexibility and speed to market. Products can be designed and developed in just a few days, he says. “I had the feeling you couldn’t get these things done in this timescale in Europe.” It means entrepreneurs can get a product to market without having to raise too much money, he adds.

對戴維-埃克斯佩東來說，在中國創業有明顯的優勢，特別是在靈活性和產品上市速度方面。他說，產品可以在短短几天內完成設計和開發。“我感覺，在歐洲你無法在這麼短的時間內完成這些事。”他補充說，這意味着創業家不必籌集太多的錢就能夠讓一款產品上市。

But he warns that the Chinese business environment is not plain sailing. “They [prospective entrepreneurs] need to come here and see what is happening. A lot of people come here with ideas that don’t fit with the market.”

但他警告稱，中國的營商環境並非一片坦途。“他們（有志創業的人）有必要來這裏，看看這裏正在發生的事。很多人來到這裏，但他們帶來的創意並不適合這裏的市場。”

It is a message echoed by Manmeet Singh, senior affiliate lecturer at EMLyonBusiness School, who has worked in China for the past 13 years. “This market has a learning curve, it has a learning curve for everybody. Even the 50-year-old chief executives of multinationals have a learning curve. They can come here and get their butt kicked.”

這一看法獲得了里昂商學院(EMLyon Business School)高級講師曼米特•辛格(Manmeet Singh)的贊同，辛格過去13年一直在中國工作。“這個市場有一條學習曲線，它對每個人來說都存在一條學習曲線。即使對50歲的跨國公司首席執行官來說，也存在一條學習曲線。他們可以來這裏，經歷一下挫折。”

European entrepreneurs are taking a double risk he says: starting a business and setting up in an alien environment.

他說，歐洲的創業家承擔着雙重風險：創業，並且是在一個陌生的環境中創業。

He also warns that much of the “low-hanging fruit” available to French entrepreneurs a few years ago no longer exists. He cites the example of those who want to set up a wine importing business in China: now the tables are turned and Chinese companies are buying vineyards around the world.

他還警告說，幾年前對法國創業家來說“容易摘到的果實”大多已不復存在。他舉了那些想要在中國開辦葡萄酒進口企業之人的例子：現在局面已經反轉過來，中國企業正在世界各地收購葡萄酒莊。

But there are some positive elements about China for European entrepreneurs, he says.

但他說，中國對歐洲創業家來說也有一些有利因素。

“There’s a lot of money available in the market for the right product. They [the Chinese] are agnostic on the origins of their entrepreneurs.”

“對合適的產品來說，中國市場上有很多錢可賺。他們（中國人）並不在意企業家來自哪裏。”

And the enthusiasm for start-up careers in China are still strong among French business students, he says. “A good 10 per cent of the class [in China] approach me with ideas.”

他說，在學習商科的法國學生中，到中國開始職業生涯的熱情仍然很強烈。“一個班級（在中國）多達10%的學生帶着創意來找過我。”

Mr Singh is heavily involved in Shanghai’s Chinaccelerator, which gives support to both Chinese and international entrepreneurs. Though popular in the US and Europe, incubators are more novel in China.

辛格積極參與了上海的“中國加速”(Chinaccelerator)孵化器項目，該項目對中國和國際創業家都提供支持。儘管在美國和歐洲很流行，但創業孵化器在中國仍是較爲新奇。

It was following Skema Business School’s tie-up with a local Suzhou incubator in 2013 that the founders of Mini Bobi decided to locate their company there. Now they are distributing their range of 30 China-manufactured clothing items in Hangzhou and Suzhou as well as Shanghai.

正是在法國商科聯盟國際商學院與蘇州當地一個孵化器項目在2013年建立合作之後，Mini Bobi的創始人才決定將公司設在蘇州。現在，她們正在杭州、蘇州以及上海分銷在中國生產的共含30款的服裝系列。

With a monthly income so far of around Rmb3,000, the founders are looking to wider distribution to increase sales and are now selling online through Taobao, China’s answer to Amazon or eBay, founded by the Alibaba Group. They are also talking to schools about designing more generous-sized school uniforms.

目前該公司月收入約3000元人民幣，兩位創始人正在探索更廣泛的分銷渠道以擴大銷售額，並且通過淘寶(Taobao)進行網上銷售。淘寶是阿里巴巴集團創建(Alibaba Group)的與亞馬遜(Amazon)和易趣(eBay)類似的購物網站。她們還在和一些學校洽談設計更多大碼校服。