Customer Reviews

New Asian Emperors: The Overseas Chinese, Their Strategies and Competitive Advantages

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a Thai and a top manager (of a US MNC) of Overseas Chinese descent I approached this book skeptically. Much has been said about the Overseas Chinese - much of it rumour and innuendo. This book breaks the mould. It interviews unapproachable top CEOs of Overseas Chinese firms (how did the authors get access? This book is the only one on the market to do so and the results are amazing!). It develops a systematic theory of strengths, weaknesses, and competencies -- and draws implications for managers and competitive practices both for the East and for Western MNCs. Kudos! This book has given me much to think about and I heartily recommend it.

The Asian crisis has come and gone and so have so many books on Asian management. However, I agree with Industry Week Growing Companies' recent appraisal (October 1999) that this book is an essential resource for any one doing business in the region. The authors shed light on the way business worked before the crisis, works during the crisis, and probably will work after the crisis is a memory.

A good, well-written often counter-intuitive book with some real insights by scholars who know Asia and Asian business. This book is now required reading in my corporate divisions in Asia and the USA.

I read this book on an overnight flight from San Francisco to Singapore -- on my way to an assignment that had stumped my company for a while. New Asian Emperors helped me and my company score a winning agreement by helping us finally understand where our Asian partners are coming from. It should help us weather any future storms together. Need I say more?!

This book is written by well-known academics with a very good grasp of how business runs in Asia. I particularly liked the authors' interviews with Stan Shih, CEO of Acer Computers, and the comparison of his management style with that of the other top Overseas Chinese strategists in the networks that the authors interviewed such as from the Wuthelum group of Singapore. The authors interviewed in-depth 2 generations of CEOs in each company, and this gave remarkable insights into how the strategy has changed over the years! The chapters on Confucianism and the theoretical model of Overseas Chinese business strengths, weakness and competencies were both superb and an absolutely must-read.

These well-known academics have done a great job of communicating their extensive understanding of Asia. This book analyzes complex phenomena with style and finesse. New Asian Emperors is actually fun to read and gave me the information to interpret various dealings with regional businesses and goverments, and with the Overseas Chinese that control these economies.

I was introduced to this book through Professors George and Usha's Harvard University class on Asian business. I found the book to be both extremely interesting and explanatory. It began to explain several problems that my company faced in Asia as well as will probably face if not anticipated.

These experts have presented an authoritative, fair and upbeat picture of the Nanyang or Overseas Chinese -- covering complex areas such as their philosophy, ethics and day-to-day business workings. Their probing, almost intimate, accounts of how top Chinese managers of Asian companies make decisions is outstanding. This is a must-read book for any one with Asian connections -- not least because it is well written.

The authors are well-known academics and researchers on Asia and so I expected the thorough and systematic understanding of Asian history, philosophy and business practices. But, this book also proposed excellent practical advice for Asian and foreign companies and governments and covered the nuts and bolts and long-term effects of strategies. Despite working in Asia, I had not considered many of these points. If you read one book on Asian business, this should be it.

I thought this book provided real inisghts into how Asians make strategic decisions and why they do so. An excellent primer on business operations in Southeast Asia (dominated economically by the Overseas Chinese) and in China (where they form the biggest investors).