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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•戈贝(Fanny Gobé)和玛丽亚•帕洛马•芬特斯(Maria Paloma Fuentes)显得热情洋溢。凭着在儿童夏装领域试水成功的劲头，这两位法国商科毕业生正在制定下一步销售计划，目标是在网上销售，同时也在经营多个品牌的时装店进行销售。
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.
时髦的开襟上衣、百慕大风格的短裤和贝雷帽，这些看上去或许像是法国巴黎春天百货(Printemps)或老佛爷百货公司(Galeries Lafayette)会陈列的商品。然而她们的初创企业Mini Bobi并没有设在巴黎，而是在距离上海不到两个小时车程的苏州。
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.
越来越多的法国毕业生在中国寻找他们的第一份工作，这两位来自法国商科联盟国际商学院(Skema)的女毕业生就是其中两个。出现这股潮流的一个原因是，欧洲商学院纷纷在中国开办校区、与中国大学合作开设学位课程，以及在北京和上海开展实习项目。
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，中国经济的增长再加上在上海等城市的进入成本较低，让全球各地那些希望成为企业家的毕业生们产生了共鸣。
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，中国的真正优势就是规模。“这里的机会要比法国更吸引人。如果你有新的创意，那就真的会很牛。”
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服装系列将巴黎风格与弹性面料以及宽松的裤腰等特点结合起来，符合中国城市里越来越多的肥胖儿童的需要，这些是戈贝的点子。
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.
她先后在法国里尔和中国上海学习时装和商科，之后在美国度过了一个间隔年，并决定撰写有关大码服装市场的论文。
“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：“在论文中，我比较了美国和中国的市场。（以前）我对这个市场并不清楚。”她补充称，中国18岁以下的肥胖人群有1.2亿人。
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，超过18%的小学生超重，与美国一样，她表示。“当我意识到（这种情况）时，我吃了一惊。”
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.
格勒诺布尔高等商学院(Grenoble Graduate School of Business)国际商务硕士课程负责人尼克•桑德斯(Nick Sanders)表示，对一切与中国相关的东西表现出热情的绝不限于企业家。该校国际商务硕士班在北京开设的为期一年的课程中，很多人希望在中国工作。
“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：“他们中90%的人确实希望留在中国，”不过实际上，只有四分之一到三分之一的学生会在中国找到毕业后的第一份工作。他补充称，另有50%的学生会从事与中国有关的工作。
“They tend to be employed where there needs to be an understanding between China and another country.”
“他们往往走上需要对中国与另一国家之间的情况有所了解的职位。”
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.
企业家马蒂厄•戴维-埃克斯佩东(Matthieu David-Experton)是巴黎高等经济商业学院(Essec)毕业生，他还在北大光华管理学院攻读过第二学位，如今他在中国专心打理他创办的第二家公司。在创业18个月后，他就出售了他的第一家公司（一家包装礼品公司）。
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年前创办了市场调研公司DXR(Daxue Consulting)，在北京、上海都有办事处，还计划在香港再设一个办事处。公司现有15名员工，但他计划到年底将员工数量扩大到20名，营收达到700万元人民币（合110万美元）。
“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.”
“我在中国一直做的是采用一种在欧洲行之有效的模式，然后加以改变以适应这里的情况。”迄今为止，他的大部分客户都是希望获得中国市场相关信息的跨国公司——尤其是那些渴望从中国人口结构变化中获利的西方养老产业集团。这种情况正在发生变化。“中国企业如今正在寻找关于竞争对手的更完善的信息。”
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.
对戴维-埃克斯佩东来说，在中国创业有明显的优势，特别是在灵活性和产品上市速度方面。他说，产品可以在短短几天内完成设计和开发。“我感觉，在欧洲你无法在这么短的时间内完成这些事。”他补充说，这意味着创业家不必筹集太多的钱就能够让一款产品上市。
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.”
但他警告称，中国的营商环境并非一片坦途。“他们（有志创业的人）有必要来这里，看看这里正在发生的事。很多人来到这里，但他们带来的创意并不适合这里的市场。”
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.”
这一看法获得了里昂商学院(EMLyon Business School)高级讲师曼米特•辛格(Manmeet Singh)的赞同，辛格过去13年一直在中国工作。“这个市场有一条学习曲线，它对每个人来说都存在一条学习曲线。即使对50岁的跨国公司首席执行官来说，也存在一条学习曲线。他们可以来这里，经历一下挫折。”
European entrepreneurs are taking a double risk he says: starting a business and setting up in an alien environment.
他说，欧洲的创业家承担着双重风险：创业，并且是在一个陌生的环境中创业。
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.
他还警告说，几年前对法国创业家来说“容易摘到的果实”大多已不复存在。他举了那些想要在中国开办葡萄酒进口企业之人的例子：现在局面已经反转过来，中国企业正在世界各地收购葡萄酒庄。
But there are some positive elements about China for European entrepreneurs, he says.
但他说，中国对欧洲创业家来说也有一些有利因素。
“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.”
“对合适的产品来说，中国市场上有很多钱可赚。他们（中国人）并不在意企业家来自哪里。”
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.”
他说，在学习商科的法国学生中，到中国开始职业生涯的热情仍然很强烈。“一个班级（在中国）多达10%的学生带着创意来找过我。”
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.
辛格积极参与了上海的“中国加速”(Chinaccelerator)孵化器项目，该项目对中国和国际创业家都提供支持。尽管在美国和欧洲很流行，但创业孵化器在中国仍是较为新奇。
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.
正是在法国商科联盟国际商学院与苏州当地一个孵化器项目在2013年建立合作之后，Mini Bobi的创始人才决定将公司设在苏州。现在，她们正在杭州、苏州以及上海分销在中国生产的共含30款的服装系列。
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.
目前该公司月收入约3000元人民币，两位创始人正在探索更广泛的分销渠道以扩大销售额，并且通过淘宝(Taobao)进行网上销售。淘宝是阿里巴巴集团创建(Alibaba Group)的与亚马逊(Amazon)和易趣(eBay)类似的购物网站。她们还在和一些学校洽谈设计更多大码校服。
