Future of Luxury with Dr. Daniel Langer
Why China Breaks Global Brands, and What the Winners Know
China is where global brands come to grow, and where many of them quietly fail. This special edition of The Future of Luxury Podcast was recorded across Shanghai over several days, in the places where the future of the consumer market is being built. The conversation moves from the club of the Shangri-La hotel to the Bund, into Huawei's Shanghai flagship store, onto the floor at Yangwang, the luxury car brand of BYD, and through one of the city's trendiest luxury cosmetics destinations. It closes with Dr. Langer's personal reflections on the week, recorded on a plane departing for Tokyo. His guest is Patrick Kaminski, one of the most accomplished international business leaders operating in China. Together they get to the heart of why so many brands, and so many managers, fail in a market they believed they understood. They explore China's ecosystem of speed and why it rewrites the rules of brand building. They examine how client expectations are shifting faster than most organizations can adapt, and they go deep into the influencer and content creator economy that now shapes desire at scale. Most importantly, they talk about what the winners do differently. Patrick has spent more than two decades leading major international organizations across Asia Pacific. His insights come from the boardroom and from the street level of the market itself. What emerges is a candid, practical view of what it actually takes to win in China. The changing locations do more than set a scene. They make this fascinating, everchanging city tangible. Listeners hear Shanghai as it is: ambitious, fast, and years ahead in ways that surprise even seasoned executives This conversation will change how you think about the market. About Patrick Kaminski: Patrick Kaminski is one of the most accomplished global business leaders operating in China. Over more than two decades, he has held board-level and senior executive positions across Asia Pacific, successfully leading major international organizations through growth, transformation, and some of the world's most dynamic consumer markets. His distinguished career includes serving as President of Henkel Group Asia Pacific, Corporate Senior Vice President for Emerging Markets at Henkel, and Executive Vice President for the Far East at Beiersdorf. Today, he is President and CEO Asia Pacific at Schülke & Mayr. Based in Shanghai, Patrick brings an exceptional combination of global leadership experience and deep, firsthand knowledge of China. Few executives can match his perspective on building brands, mastering cultural complexity, and competing at the extraordinary speed of the Chinese market. In this conversation, he shares the leadership lessons, strategic insights, and hard-earned experience behind an extraordinary career at the forefront of business in Asia.
