Fortune Makers: The Leaders Creating China's Great Global Companies

by Michael Useem, Harbir Singh, Neng Liang, Peter Cappelli Narrated by Jeff Cummings

Overview

When Peter Drucker wrote Concept of the Corporation in 1946, he revealed what made the large American corporation tick. Similarly, The Art of Japanese Management by Richard Pascale in 1981 explained the unique practices developed by the Japanese to bring that country's economy out of the ashes. The emerging Chinese juggernauts-the Alibabas, Lenovos, and Haiers-need similar revelation since they are a different breed in their own right. Little is understood about them, how they work, and what makes them such potentially imposing competitors.

Now, based on unprecedented access to the people who have created and grown the great private companies of China-the “General Electrics and Sonys" of that country, Michael Useem, Harbir Singh, Peter Cappelli and Neng Liang bring to life the distinctive practices of Chinese business leaders as they invent their own way forward to create world-class companies, and provide a comprehensive look at the leaders and businesses that are the future of the Chinese economy-and major competition to Western companies.

Chinese companies are emerging on the global stage as never before, and their leadership lessons are invaluable in understanding and coping with their growing commercial presence worldwide. Company managers everywhere will want to understand China's distinct way of doing business if they are to compete against the companies that already dominate the domestic Chinese market and are coming to the fore in foreign markets, including the U.S.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

01/09/2017
Four business school professors deliver a lively exploration of the Chinese way of doing business. As the introduction emphasizes, China’s economy has accelerated with astonishing speed in recent decades, and without the political liberties typically associated with capitalism. For readers interested in understanding this process from the inside, the authors describe how the leaders of Chinese companies such as Haier, Alibaba, and Lenovo think about business. They break down this unique mindset into seven key phrases or terms—“their own way forward,” “the learning company,” “strategic agility for the long game,” “talent management,” “the big boss,” “growth as gospel,” and “governance as partnership”—and devote a chapter to each. The authors also give a history of the growth of Chinese business in the 1980s and ’90s and provide highly detailed case studies from the companies under discussion. In the final chapter they observe that these once pioneering businesses have now attained a certain level of maturity and may become models for non-Chinese companies. The book also leaves readers with a question: with China’s culture shifting once again as a less-deferential generation enters the workforce, is the “China way” of business sustainable? (Mar.)

From the Publisher

"Surprising insights...The authors ably demonstrate how the once-countercultural practice of capitalism in China remains unlike the variety practiced in the West. Full of object lessons, this is a valuable overview for students of international commerce."—Kirkus Reviews

"A lively exploration of the Chinese way of doing business."
—Publishers Weekly

"Fortune Makers chronicles how a new brand of Chinese business leaders have thrown off the shackles of the Cultural Revolution and State-owned enterprises to lead aggressive private companies into the global business arena. The authors-Cappelli, Liang, Singh and Useem-provide a fascinating glimpse what makes these CEOs and the companies they lead tick, while sounding an alarm bell for all those Western competitors that will need to up their game to be successful in the future. This is a book that should be required reading for anyone conducting international business inside or outside of China."—Arthur D. Collins, Jr., former Chairman and CEO of Medtronic, Inc., and Managing Partner, Acorn Advisors, LLC

"Fortune Makers provides an extremely interesting perspective on a new breed of global companies with roots in China. As the chief marketing officer of Lenovo for four years, I had the unique privilege to observe and engage in the operations of one such company. Made me a huge believer in the massive impact companies like Lenovo will continue to make on the global stage. To understand how China's great private companies are being directed and led, this is the book to read."—Deepak Advani, Managing Director of private-equity firm, Hellman & Friedman LLC, and formerly Global Chief Marketing Officer of Lenovo and General Manager of IBM Commerce

Library Journal

02/01/2017
Coauthors Useem (director, Ctr. for Leadership and Change, Wharton Sch., Univ. of Pennsylvania), Harbir Singh (codirector, Mack. Inst. for Innovation Management, Wharton Sch., Univ. of Pennsylvania), Neng Liang (director, Case Development Ctr., China Europe Intl. Business Sch.), and Peter Cappelli (director, Ctr. for Human Resources, Wharton Sch., Univ. of Pennsylvania) explain how Chinese business leaders thrived, leading to the economic development that pulled over half a billion people out of poverty. They write that "when China first initiated its economic reforms in 1978, there were virtually no private enterprises in China and few indigenous traditions for China's would-be entrepreneurs to build upon or emulate." The authors offer an informative and balanced look at Chinese business leaders' success in an environment initially hostile to capitalist principles. This book is an excellent resource for those interested in China's business environment or economic development. It is informed by interviews of business leaders and examines leading companies, such as Lenovo and Alibaba, while providing a broader theoretical context to frame the discussion of Chinese and Western approaches to the marketplace. VERDICT A must-read for anyone interested in China's economic development or business environment.—Casey Watters, Singapore Management Univ.

Kirkus Reviews

2016-12-27
There are new markets to share out there, and the old capitalist way of doing things won't be the one that captures them.In this collaboration between researchers at the Wharton School and the China Europe International Business School, there are the usual tables depicting, say, the value of mergers and acquisitions over the last decade, and the usual nostrums about how Chinese society is governed, for all its communist veneer, by Confucian ideals. Beyond these to-be-expected features, though, lie some surprising insights into how the biggest players in the Chinese economy—beyond the state and military themselves—worked their ways into their positions and, more important, what makes them different from their counterparts in the West. Take Zhang Ruimin, for instance, CEO of the Haier Group, the world's largest appliance company. As a Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution, he was "charged with bringing down bourgeois elements within society, especially anybody associated with capitalism." He then rose through the ranks in construction and manufacturing, returning from a trip to Germany ashamed at the shoddiness of Chinese goods—so much so that, in the factory he now headed, he ordered that defective units be smashed to pieces. His experience in the Maoist era, the authors write, made him cautious and perhaps even fearful but also unusually committed to an economic experiment that is still playing out, based on the traditional guanxi ("personal networks of relations that give an executive access and influence") but also on some notable precepts—e.g., the idea that economic success should benefit all members of society and not just a few players. Examining several business leaders and their strategies, from "resetting the game" to eliminate weak positions to growing business partners and suppliers in concert with growing one's own business, the authors ably demonstrate how the once-countercultural practice of capitalism in China remains unlike the variety practiced in the West. Full of object lessons, this is a valuable overview for students of international commerce.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169558272
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	03/14/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

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