I could not help being somewhat sidetracked this week by unprecedented political events in the U.S. as Barack Obama became the presidential nominee for the Democratic Party. Conducting his campaign with a message of substantial change, Barack Obama has also indicated a desire to engage more constructively with China. China Dialogue recently compared and analyzed the policies of both presidential candidates on climate change, and has republished in full Obama's speech from late May setting out his vision for a new energy future. Bemoaning the U.S.' failure to lead on climate change and its struggling to stay relevant in the debate, Obama noted that already some coal pollution from China's dirty plants is making its way to California, and in an effort to curb China's carbon emissions, he promised that

as we develop new forms of clean energy at home, we will share our technology and innovations with all the rest of the world. If we can build a clean coal plant in America, China should be able to as well. 

Obama's willingness to more readily share technology and innovations with China resonates with the approach adopted by German chemicals manufacturer BASF, which is finalizing plans for an ambitious joint venture in Nanjing with China energy group Sinopec in which the latter is set to receive $900m in investment to boost output by 25% over the next three years. Martin Brudermuller, head of BASF's Asia activities, told FT.com that the Nanjing operation will

aim to gain expertise in combining China's famed low cost
with the development of new design and production skills. If all goes to plan, this will involve importing ideas from BASF's operations around the world and linking these with concepts developed by BASF's 6,000-strong staff in China.

According to Brudermuller, such an approach is required as China's economy starts to mature. Yet BASF's strategy in China is part of a current wider phenomenon as China goes through (as the FT.com article puts it) a more subtle phase:

Known for its rapid progress to become the world's joint-second most productive manufacturing region, China...is becoming a giant test bed for manufacturing ideas, building on its existing strengths in low-cost production by using the efforts of engineers and developers not just in China but from around the world.

The article goes on to cite Jimmy Hexter, a director at the Beijing office of the McKinsey strategy company, who claimed that the greatest commercial rewards will be reaped by companies who are able to optimally utilize networking approaches that link different groups in different countries.

The growing imperative for networking and collaboration in global supply chains has also been emphasized in a new report and supply chain model, Future Supply Chain 2016, published by the Global Commerce Initiative and consulting firm Capgemini. Citing the new report, Sustainable Life Media outlined the best way companies can redesign their supply chains for maximum efficiency:

The coming years will see a new era for industry collaboration, which will become an important factor for future success...Some business areas that are now considered to be core differentiators may well become candidates for collaboration with competitors.

Cooperation in the form of information sharing and collaborative warehousing and distribution, the report found, can offer efficiencies that companies simply cannot achieve on their own.