Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
New perspective, 7 April 2008
Tarun Khanna is writing from a specifically business angle, although he does provide some historical context; so this is not the place for comparisons of larger cultural issues. Within that focus, he is interesting and original. His book helps with several questions: (i) why does China so dominate Western attention when India has many comparable features? (ii) What are the differences between the two, when others often conflate them into an amorphous 'Chindia'? (iii) Why does India do badly on the most visible aspect of rapid economic development - infrastructure - compared to China? Most importantly, Khanna engages with the tangled issue of the relationship between the market and democracy that is seldom disambiguated by observers. On the one hand, Western commentators jib at the 'Asian Values' rhetoric of economic development not requiring political freedoms; at the same time, they tend to criticise democratic India's lack of decisive State action compared to China. Khanna shows how some of the less visible aspects of development are further advanced in India precisely because of its complex but open transactional democracy. Most strikingly, he inverts the significance of FDI by saying that China draws much more only because of opaque State-directed market activity and a lack of homegrown private entrepreneurship, while India's flourishing private sector and stock markets are less critically in need of FDI in the search for financial resources. Khanna does bring an Indian balance to the India-China comparisons, but is self-consciously scrupulous in pointing out how and why China does better in key areas - especially infrastructure, public medical services and education. There is still a conundrum left: if the inefficiency of the State is the primary reason for India's problems, but at the same time, a democratic state is the requirement for long-term improvements, when will Indian politics measure up to the fundamental demands of its enfranchised population? For China, of course, the question is obvious: how long can the Communist Party retain power and drive China down this particular path of focussed and controlled development? Khanna's book is a refreshing alternative to a lot of journalistic tripe going around.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A businesslike but aimless meander through China and India, 28 Jan 2008
This is a book that explores the two great economies of the developing world, China and India, very much from a business perspective. It is destined to become a manual for American executives on their first assignment to lead an Asian operation. It will also be welcomed by many readers who need to cover both subjects because there have hitherto been few (if any) manuals that intertwine the stories of China and India in such a fluent and business-friendly way.
Tarun Khanna, a Harvard Business School professor, contrasts the two countries but rarely compares them. That is to say, in each chapter he picks a theme and examines the Chinese and Indian approaches to that theme. It is interesting, enlightening even, but he doesn't end up by saying that one is better than the other. So each chapter offers some interesting insights and experiences, and one begins to feel like one has really been to the places he is describing. But in the end he doesn't reach with any real conclusion, except that few multinational companies are managing to make the most of both markets, except for GE, the world's largest company. Call me unsophisticated, but I would have quite liked Khanna to give us a bit more drama and conflict and - considering the terrible poverty and suffering experienced in both countries - a bit more pain. Both countries' histories have terrible episodes, but being a business book, this concentrates on the business history and personal stories about people who are managing to do business.
Khanna is something of a rose-tinted observer. He writes engagingly and often illustrates his theme with anecdotes told from a fondly personal perspective. But he describes the Chinese communist party, for example, as a meritocracy, which beggars belief, since most people would not mistake the architects of the Tiananmen Square massacre for the most worthy citizens of China. Khanna is a glass-half-full kind of guy and he certainly believes in progress and is optimistic about the direction both countries are going in. He doesn't leave the reader with the sense that pollution, racism, over-population, inequality or (Chinese) political development might be serious stumbling blocks in the future. Khanna is rather like a knowledgeable but overly polite uncle, who has nice anecdotes about everyone but lacks the bitchy cut-and-thrust you might get from a gossipy aunt.
So, in short, "Billions of Entrepreneurs" is full of stories about people trying to do business in China and India. It might enrich your thinking but it probably won't change your mind about anything.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Not entirely inspiring, 11 Aug 2008
An interesting book to read but apart from narrating the author's own experience in India, the book is informative but lacks depth. The book contains some glaring typos. For instance, on p.69, the author cites that there are "eighteen billion" residents in Shanghai while on p.57, he writes "St.Regis Hotel in Beijing's tony (I suppose he meant 'tiny') Central Business District". The book elsewhere lacks proper punctuation that it can be tiresome reading the contents.
The author was also partisan and biased when he attributes "beef consumption" to lower-caste Hindus thus blantantly overlooking the fact that countless high-caste Hindus (read Brahmins) do eat beef and pork.
After reading the book, one gets the impression that it is truly a work of an academic rather than a seasoned writer.
Overall, an average read.
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