As part of our internal "Future School" event format, we regularly invite external speakers to inspire us on selected future topics. We are happy to share insights and takeaways from "What we can learn from China" in this post. It tells us a lot about everyday habits. Transferring at least some of them into our business could, among other things, help bring a lived culture of innovation closer to German entrepreneurs. So what is the core of China's innovation capacity, and what does China have that we Germans, for example, find difficult?

Christian Kuhna - Founder USDC

Christian Kuhna, Founder of Urban Society Design Consultancy USDC and lecturer at Chinese universities, gave us personal insights from his 4.5 years in Shanghai so far and remains enthusiastic about the country's innovation capacity and excitement for the new.

1. Opportunism

A key role is played by the opportunistic view of the future that is widespread throughout the Chinese population and runs across all age groups. An open mindset, the belief that you can actively shape your own future, is an immense driver of innovation—perhaps the greatest competitive advantage you can have over rivals.

2. Acceptance

The second essential component of China's innovation power is the widespread acceptance of technology. Digitalization is no longer seen as a core challenge here but as the status quo in nearly all areas of life: shopping, work, leisure—everything is full of virtual interactions in which artificial intelligence learns along in the background. Interconnected networks of networks ensure continuous data exchange, for example in super apps like Alibaba, which are dominated by the creative Generation Z.

3. Curiosity

When you look at China's future, you simultaneously become aware of its past, and you see today a strongly self-confident nation that makes the topic of innovation tangible in a very playful way. Here it is "Why not?" instead of "Why?" and improvisation instead of perfection. We in Germany may smile at this inner playfulness, but it definitely leads to a positive attitude toward the new and gives innovations the space they need to mature.

Technology & people

Despite considerable resistance and skepticism from other industrialized nations around the world, China is going its own way. The current Chinese government's five-year plan (2021–2025), for example, focuses on sustainable economic growth and an innovation-driven industry and agriculture. More on the plan's priorities can be found in this PDF from the Chinese embassy in Germany.

The wide-ranging advanced digitalization and the government's targeted investments in the economy provide fertile ground for innovation. Globally, for some years we have been countering the technology-driven developments of the past decades with "human centricity." People are also strongly in focus in China, and the government is putting human aspects at the forefront of its actions. This mainly concerns

• work
• leadership
• organizations

It will be exciting to watch how these areas continue to evolve in China in the coming years.

What we can learn from China: embracing pulsating change

In recent years, China has been very successful at embracing constant change and the pulsating transformation that the future can bring. Being aware of one's cultural roots and putting positive values at the forefront of one's actions—that is something we should definitely learn from China. Thanks to the traits described above, China creates an innovative environment for its population in a very authentic way and, alongside strong economic growth, drives the transformation we long for in Germany.

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