Business Insights: China is very different from the multitude of books by Western commentators, often academics rather than experienced business managers, that have flooded the market in recent years.
The principal author and editor, Jonathan Reuvid has been actively
engaged in joint venture development in China, both as a consultant and
an investor since 1984. He is also the co-editor of Doing Business with
China, now in its fifth edition, in association with China Association
of International Trade (CAIT), an affiliate of the Ministry of
Commerce. This publication was acknowledged as a leading handbook for
decision-makers in Western business corporations worldwide.
As the sequel, Business Insight: China takes readers forward from the regulatory detail of investment and trade in China with a series of commentaries on actual experience by leading practitioners of doing business in China supported by case studies from British companies that have engaged in China with successful and less successful outcomes.
These chapters offer valuable insight to Western companies seeking to engage in China in terms of the practical issues and business environment that they will encounter. At the same time, the book is also of interest to Chinese readers because it illustrates the perceptions that British entrepreneurs have of China and its business practices and their attitudes towards relationships with Chinese managers and Chinese companies.
Both sets of readers will find illuminating the chapters on developing and managing joint ventures and culture partnerships, as well as personal accounts of managing a business in China, airport construction and the MG Rover takeover. There are also some 15 case studies of actual business projects in manufacturing and services, most of which have matured into successful ventures and some of which failed to achieve their objectives. There is as much to be learnt from the failures as from the successes.
Over the years, China has done a better job of understanding international standards and best practice, Western mindsets and business structures than the West has of understanding unfamiliar Chinese approaches to business and cultural differences. However, there are still important shortfalls in understanding on both sides. Business Insights: China sets out to expose and clarify many of the misunderstandings.
More generally, the author addresses the apprehension that many businesspeople in the West and, in particular the English language press, have of China’s growing influence in world affairs and its arrival as the economic superpower of the 21st century. As Jonathan Reuvid points out, there is often ‘an underlying sense of hopeful anticipation that China might stumble and that its uncomfortable global presence might be diminished’. The first part of the book lays out the economic evidence and arrives at reasoned, less alarming conclusions of how the pattern of global trade and investment may evolve.
The book is recommended by the UK’s influential Institute of Directors (IoD) that represents the core of medium-sized and smaller businesses and advises the British government on economic policy.
Jonathan Reuvid is the author of Business Insights: China, published by Kogan Page, www.koganpage.com, hardback, 318 pages, GBP45
Last update : Saturday, 24 May 2008
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