If hip hop stars are indeed the ultimate in cool, Adidas has got its formula perfectly right with its line of appealing apparel and accessories conceived in association with noted musician Missy Elliot. Termed, Respect M.E. it has all the ‘Elliot’ trademark style, with ravishing rap star bling.

The line is available for sale in Adidas Originals stores globally and in leading Indian cities such as Chandigarh, Bangalore and New Delhi. Tushar Goculdas, director (marketing and sales) Adidas India, has been quoted as saying, “We first launched the Originals lifestyle brand at the 1972 Munich Olympics. It was inspired by the famous sports stars of the time.

“The line happened to catch on so well that shoes and apparel seen on the field in the 1970s are now often seen in movies, music videos, and on celebrities at clubs and many rock shows.” 

Tracking the trend, there seem to be quite a many takers for a curious collaboration between sports and fashion. A peep into the actor Amrita Arora’s wardrobe and one instantly realizes that it is dominated by top brands such as Adidas, Lululemon Athletica, Juicy Couture and Reebok.

Interestingly, she isn’t really a sports enthusiast. In fact, these clothes do not make her appear like one either. It’s rather the ‘sporty chic’ look she prefers. Amrita likes to wear workout tops that go nicely with jeans and heels for those outings with special friends. 

Amrita Arora has been quoted saying in an interview: “They are made for workouts; they hold the body together and also give you a good shape. The actor loves the sporty, colorful apparel from Lululemon Athletica, which is a Canadian brand. At filmi parties and events, she has often been spotted in Juicy Couture tracksuits, even pairing black track pants sometimes with a shirt and boots. According to her, it’s quite comfortable and cool.

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This indeed can be tricky, choosing the right gifts for your Chinese business associates whom you are looking to form a long-term partnership with. Gift giving is a rather delicate issue in China. There are various unspoken but set norms of gift giving in the country, which you need to rigorously stick to. First and foremost, it is illegal to offer gifts to a government official.

Gifting a business contact is more acceptable. The most preferred gift is a banquet. You will find it curious that quality writing instruments are a favored gift in China. However, the following gifts and/or colors should be avoided since they are considered inauspicious:

* Anything white, blue or black
* Clocks
* Cut flowers
* Straw sandals
* A stork or crane
* Handkerchiefs

Do not give any sharp, pointed object as a gift; it symbolizes severing of relations. Also, avoid giving things in sets of four.

The Chinese do not appreciate really entering into a business partnership with strangers. If possible, try to bring into play an intermediary, who enjoys an established relationship with the Chinese counterpart, for the first meeting.

Gifts are a vital way of creating guanxi in China. According to Chinese etiquettes, a person will usually decline an invitation or a gift three times before eventually accepting it. The giver is expected to persist gently so that the gift is accepted. Be sensitive to genuine refusals, and don’t force it on the receiver!

Never present a lofty gift that your Chinese business associate cannot reciprocate in kind, since this would put the latter in an awkward position.

The Chinese people will not open a gift immediately on receiving it. You should follow suit unless the other person insists that you check it. Foreign cigarettes, fine whisky, quality wines, cognac are acceptable as gifts. However, food items as a gift is a strict no-no as it can denote poverty. Wrap gifts tastefully, but again avoid white, blue or black. (Avoid elaborate wrapping.)

Imbibing nuances of Chinese culture and traditions will help you get into the good books. Understanding and following the gift giving formalities is very important or else you will end up offending your Chinese host.

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The number of chief executives who are planning to make their presence felt at the Beijing Olympic Games is likely to rival the number at the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland that often attracts over 1,000 business leaders.

Lured by the increasing importance of the Chinese market and the opportunity to help Beijing in celebrating its biggest international event yet, the corporate honchos are heading to Beijing. No surprise, tickets for the Olympics opening ceremony are going for $50,000 in the gray market.

Indicating the interesting trend, a report in the Wall Street Journal mentions that in addition to thousands of athletes, over 80 heads of state and close to 30,000 members of the media, another group that is expected to invade Beijing in full force for the Olympics is corporate executives! The report quotes chief executive of advertising conglomerate WPP Group PLC Sir Martin Sorrell as saying: “You could call it a sporting Davos. It goes beyond just a wonderful sporting occasion. There are political and economic implications.”

In fact, many executives perceive the Olympics as a must event for firms that do business in China, or hope to. Bill Gates is set to attend, for example, as is Rick Wagoner, General Motors Corp. CEO. Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, India’s largest business house is also said to be heading for Beijing. Few other leading industrialists are likely to follow suit.

Among prominent global CEOs expected to attend the Games are Blackstone Group LP’s Stephen Schwarzman; BP PLC’s Tony Hayward Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s H. Lee Scott Jr. and Terry Leahy, of Tesco PLC; Motorola Inc.’s Greg Brown; News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch, and. Yahoo Inc. CEO Jerry Yang may also be there. Randall Stephenson, the AT&T Inc. CEO, plans meetings with customers, partners and employees in Beijing.

The top executives of dozens of Olympics sponsor firms, including Volkswagen AG’s Martin Winterkorn and McDonald’s Corp.’s Jim Skinner are also going to be there. Many of these firms will hold board meetings in Beijing. The Olympics is looking more like a corporate meet than a sporting spectacle!

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A Brief History of the Olympic Games: The ancient Olympics captured the imaginations of the Greeks for more than a millennium until a Christianized Rome put a stop on the competitions in the fourth century AD. But the Olympic ideal did not die. This book by American scholar David Young’s titled ‘A Brief History of the Olympic Games’ (Publishers: Wiley-Blackwell) is a succinct history of the Olympics and their modern resurgence.

Prof. Young researched the subject for over 25 years. He reveals in the book how the ancient Olympics evolved from a modest beginning into a grand sporting festival, attracting highly trained athletes, spectators, and even the finest artists and poets.

The Naked Olympics: Tony Perrottet’s ‘The Naked Olympics’ (Publishers: Random House) is a charming book that depicts the world of the games through the vision of imaginary Greek athlete Hippothales, who wanders around the sporting site. The author describes not only the athletic competitions but also the intriguing world of religiosity, pilgrimage and commerce in which they were set.

The acclaimed author brings erudition, humor and attitude to the fascinating tale of the original Olympic festival, tracking the event day by day to recreate the charm in all its compelling spectacle, using firsthand reports and little-known resources including an actual ‘Handbook for a Sports Coach’ used by the Greeks.

Olympic Dreams: China and Sports: Xu Guoqi in his ‘Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895-2008’ (Publishers: Harvard University Press) covers how under Communism, sport became a passionate political project as much as cultural revolution or youth indoctrination.

‘Olympics’ by Chris Oxlade (D K Publishing)is a triumphal history of the games, starting from ancient Greece. Readers will come to discover the pageantry of the original Olympics; Pierre de Coubertin’s revival of the modern games in the year 1896, the variety of Olympic sports, astounding world records and much more in the book.

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