Harvard Business Review on Doing Business in China (Harvard Business Review Paperback Series)

By Harvard Business Review

The 50th title in the HBR paperback series highlights what every company must know to successfully enter and compete in the world's fastest-growing economy. China is the world's hottest market right now. It is predicted to remain the fastest growing major economy for the next decade and beyond, so corporations are eager to get in on a piece of the action - The potential opportunity in China is huge: it is home to a quarter of the world's population, domestic consumer spending in China is growing by up to 10 per cent a year, and relaxed regulatory restraints have opened China up to unprecedented levels of foreign investment. On the flip side, China is a region infamous for its significant cultural and governmental complexities. This book will help multinational corporations and the managers who work in them understand the implications of China's current stage of development and develop strategies for effectively competing in this environment.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591396387
• ISBN13: 9781591396383
• Release Date: December 2004
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Length: 204 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

An excelent reading in my business trips

I have been in china for business trips over 7 times and I always use this reading during the air trip(many hours from Puerto Rico to China (22 hours). And always find something new to apply to my visits for negotiations from this book. Humberto Torres Puerto Rico

Must do reading

This is a great complitation of HBR articles on China. A must do reading for anyone seriously interested in doing business in China

Good but isolated perspectives

Like other HBR articles, the articles in this collection on Doing Business in China are well written and presented, with each examining a particular issue in a fairly coherent way. However, as they are written by different authors, there is an inevitable lack of cohesion among the articles. For example, in article "Entering China: An Unconventional Approach" (pages 105-121), author Vanhonacker argues that since "Chinese companies...typically have a more immediate interest in profits than foreign investors do," "joint ventures do not offer foreign companies what they need to succeed in China." Yet, in article "Trouble in Paradise" (pages 141-161), authors Xin and Pucik present a case study, where the dilemma faced by the American general manager is such that while his US-based boss wants him to improve the joint venture's profitability from a 4% ROI to a 20% ROI, the Chinese deputy general manager wants to grow the joint venture by acquiring another local Chinese enterprise! In my experience, the scenarios presented in the two articles are pretty academic because the reality is much more messy than that and hardly rests on such a simple black/white trade-off. Indeed, we now know that the China challenge is multifaceted. Therefore, there is an urgent need for an integrated framework that distills what it takes to succeed in China (how to think as well as what to do) by running a central, balanced theme across all these perspectives. It is fair to say that although eight useful articles are put together in one volume, this book lacks the above mentioned central theme. To find such a central theme, you will have to read Dr Wei Wang's The China Executive: Marrying Western and Chinese Strengths to Generate Profitability from Your Investment in China. In it, you will find a road map to business success in 21st-century China.

A little dated but a good read.

Dont be fooled by the 2004 publising date most of the articles inluded here are from the late 90's early 00's. Otherwise a good read and well worth the $14 price tag.