The China Executive: Marrying Western and Chinese Strengths to Generate Profitability from Your Investment in China [Illustrated] [Paperback]

 

 

Create your own review

I am a cross-cultural trainer and have over the last twenty years trained thousands of EU business people, who were preparing to do business in China, using the cultural model developed by "culture guru" Geert Hofstede in his bestseller Culture's Consequences in 1980. The model asserts, based on analysis of responses of Westerners and Asians to questions designed by the author, that Westerners and Asians (including the Chinese) are characterised by individualism and collectivism respectively.

This model was subsequently reinforced by Fons Trompenaars in his cultural "masterpiece" (according to Tom Peters, who triggered the growth of the management guru industry in the early 1980s) Riding the Waves of Culture in 1993, based on analyses of an even bigger database consisting of responses to questionnaire surveys.

Even in leading psychologist Richard Nisbett's latest book Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently ... and Why, Professor Nisbett concludes that "The ecology of China ... favoured agriculture. ... Agricultural peoples need to get along with one another ... The ecology of Greece, on the other hand ... favoured hunting, herding and fishing ... [which] require relatively little cooperation with others."

After visiting China a few times, I began to feel that the Chinese are not collectivists at all. The most obvious evidence is that even when there are only two people at the airport, they are unlikely to queue at a service point. It is even harder to secure people's cooperation when you want to get a bigger task done. I was puzzled by my first-hand feelings, which were clearly against the cultural model I have been relying on in my training job over the years.

Following a friend's recommendation, I bought The China Executive, which completely resolves my puzzle. Dr Wang has shown that the difference between Westerners and the Chinese does not lie in the difference between individualism and collectivism. Instead, their difference lies in the fact that Westerners rely on ideas, rules and ideologies to organise themselves whereas the Chinese rely on their human feelings to each other to organise themselves. We may say that one relies on something external whereas the other relies on something internal.

What a great discovery!

But the greatness of the book does not stop here. In my cross-cultural training, I tend to adopt an analytical mindset, which seeks to develop deeper and deeper understanding of the differences between cultures. I have always thought that this is what my trainees have wanted. After reading The China Executive, I have realised that my approach was not practical because, as Dr Wang says, "a lot of these cultural analyses tend to overload" those who come to my class. What is needed is a pool of methods that practising business people can choose depending on the nature of the difference. To master Dr Wang's ground-breaking idea of "harmonising cultural differences at three levels - ignoring and tolerating, communicating and balancing, and training and learning", buy the book immediately.

In fact, with The China Executive in your hands, you won't be puzzled wherever you go in the world because there are only two things on earth that relate human beings to each other: abstract ideas and human feelings. They are really the two sides of the same coin - one cannot exist without the other - if we look at them in an even bigger context, but the challenge for us human beings is to balance them appropriately, as Dr Wang advises those globally-minded business people!

This is an outstanding book because Dr Wang has demonstrated an ability to generate original, durable thinking on the hard task of making a successful investment in China.

Given this challenge and the lack of books that reveal its nature, it is obvious that Western executives will greatly benefit from reading the book, in which the author has successfully made a connection between China and the West - their histories, cultures, worldviews and, above all, their implications for business - in the most practical way.

I guarantee that with this book in your hands, China will never be a puzzle for you again!

But the book is not just a practical guide for practising executives; it also offers ideas and concepts that challenge business management theories taught at Western business schools.

For example, it extends Peter Drucker's results-oriented business orientation, which has produced not only material results but also people who are driven by such results, to one that is based on both results and relationships (which are really two sides of the same coin). Drawing on Sun Tzu's strategy wisdom, it extends Michael Porter's competitive force-based strategic framework to one that sees business success as being determined by moral, temporal, spatial, organisational and leadership forces, and his three generic strategic positions to four levels of strategic advantage that are pursued as a moving target.

At the heart of these ideas and concepts is actually intuition, which Henry Mintzberg, another business guru, has long advocated against the analysis-based mainstream business school thinking. (As a business school professor, he is really a courageous rebel.) But Mintzberg has achieved limited success in connecting intuition with analysis in a theoretical form. And this is where Dr Wang has, in my view, made the most important contribution.

He has demonstrated the role of intuition in dealing with Chinese people, in reading the dynamics of the China market, in finding a suitable business partner, in running a business organisation and, more generally, in achieving global business success.

As such, The China Executive is required reading for every business school student, whose business career will not only be related to China but also inseparable from globalisation.

Jack Welch, "manager of the century" according to Fortune, wrote in his latest global best-seller Winning:

"At speaking engagements, I am often asked what industries I would recommend to college grads and MBAs today. I tell them to look into companies doing business at the intersection of biology and information technology. And I suggest they learn everything they can about China because it will permeate every aspect of business in their lifetimes."

Yet, although thousands of business books are published in any year, most of them are written by "get-rich-quick tipsters, motivational preachers and one-minute-solution merchants", as the FT's Michael Skapinker has described them. In fact, the situation is so bad that the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs decided in 2005 to establish an annual award for the world's best business book.

I vote The China Executive for this year's award.

To be sure, there are an increasing number of books published on China business, including the highly publicised The China Dream, Inside Chinese Business, Doing Business in China, The Chinese Century, Mr China, The Chinese Tao of Business, One Billion Customers and, most recently, China Shakes the World. But while these books enhance our understanding of China business, they at the same time add much confusion because they are either not grounded in the authors' direct experience of doing business in China or do not link the China business reality with the well-developed Western business and management theories. For example, if it is so hopeless to invest in China as The China Dream depicts, why are most Western investors not leaving China? True, the China business reality can be as tough as Mr China presents, but surely the question is: how to rise to the China challenge? And if virtually everything you hear about China is true, and so is the opposite (John Frankenstein, University of Hong Kong), how do we find their limits?

In The China Executive, you will find answers to these and many other crucial questions. I have particularly appreciated the fact that the book has exploded many fashionable myths about doing business with China, such as the collectivism of the Chinese and their negotiating advantage in dealings with Western business people, which have been created because many so-called "China hands" have really been a prisoner of their own culture - whether in a professional or philosophical sense.

As the author observes, "China cannot thoroughly be understood from either a Western or a Chinese viewpoint. To grasp its nature requires an orbital, historical view of both the West and China." There is no doubt that the author has successfully uncovered the nature of China and has demonstrated its profound implications for business.

Given also China's growing part in global business and as the world's Leadership Guru Professor Warren Bennis endorses, I cannot see any reason why any existing and future business executives will not find this book valuable.

Indeed, we may simply conclude that China has advanced over the past two-and-a-half decades as a result of its learning from the West. Isn't it time for us Westerners to ask: what can we learn from China so that we can succeed in the 21st century?

I recommend The China Executive, because you will find the answer to the above question in the book. In fact, you may find that The China Executive is your business bible in the age of globalisation because it will stimulate you to develop a global mindset, which is the start of a successful global business journey. And a global mindset is "an elevated, enlarged mindset that seeks to combine the strengths of the Western mindset and those of the Eastern mindset."

I have read many business and management books during my MBA study. I find The China Executive, which is full of original and stimulating ideas and above all wisdom, extremely valuable in helping me link what I have learnt in the classroom with what I am experiencing on the China ground.

For all this, I thank the author!

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 10 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

 

5.0 out of 5 stars Rethinking Hofstede's "five dimensions" on cross-cultural management
This is a great work on China business - well, on China at large really because if we cannot understand China, the people and the society, there is little chance for us to... Read more

Published on 9 Oct 2009 by Cheryl

5.0 out of 5 stars A pioneering book of real value and wide appeal
I met Wei Wang at the Sixth Annual China Conference, held at the Port of Los Angeles on September 12-13. Read more

Published on 30 Oct 2007 by China trader

5.0 out of 5 stars The most practical business book on China
I was assigned this book for my MBA - Global Management class, so I read it thoroughly.

I loved it, by far the most practical business book on China (there are now... Read more

Published on 23 Oct 2007 by An MBA student

5.0 out of 5 stars A Distinctive Voice!
I bought a copy of this book after I read the review of the book in the September 2006 issue of Business Voice, the magazine of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which... Read more

Published on 6 Oct 2006 by A company executive

5.0 out of 5 stars Business in China is complex, contradictory and confusing, but this book will ultimately enlighten you.
Complex. Contradictory. Confusing. For centuries, China has proven difficult for Westerners to understand. Read more

Published on 1 Aug 2006 by An expat based in Shanghai

5.0 out of 5 stars A book that will change how you see the world!
I met Dr Wei Wang at the Summer Reception of China-Britain Business Council and he mentioned his book The China Executive to me. I subsequently bought one from Amazon.co. Read more

Published on 26 July 2006 by A company director

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly great business book that every Western businessperson needs to read!
China's rise is transforming global politics, the global economy, and societies worldwide. So, everybody will arguably need to develop responses to meet the China challenge... Read more

Published on 14 July 2006 by A China Trader

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 10 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

Search Listmania!