Title: One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China

Author: James McGregor

Hosts: Clyde Warden

A lot of good stories at high level corporate level, this book tells of China's opening business environment mostly during the mid 90s from a very chamber of commerce perspective. I guess that makes if a perfect read for MBA students.

Given my association with Chinese culture and business, I found this book to be quite good and accurate. McGregor was the first reporter stationed in Beijing from the WSJ and has many stories to draw on from the early and mid 1990s. The writing is quite good and the stories all interesting, but they all center on very large companies and read much like the WSJ itself. Occasionally, there is some insight on behavior and culture but these are usually stated in negative contexts, which McGregor always gets right, but risks activating readers' misunderstandings of Chinese culture in the business context. Overall, much like the WSJ, I felt good while reading, but a bit empty after finishing since I live in the small world of reality, not the CEO level of fantasy.

The Show:

Length: 9 minutes 45 seconds. Download MP3 4.45MB (Right click->Save As).