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Donald N. Sull , with Yong Wang.
Harvard Business School Press: Boston, MA, 2005. xiii+231pp. US$ 29.95.
ISBN:
1-59139-715-4
As part of London Business School Prof. Donald Sull's larger research program into effective business strategy in unpredictable markets, Made in China addresses the following agenda:
This book has two primary objectives -- to introduce Western readers to a sample of China's trailblazing entrepreneurs and companies, and to use their stories to illustrate more general principles that anyone can use to manage more effectively in unpredictable markets (p. 21)
From Sull's perspective, today's business environment in general and China's emerging 'socialist market economy' in particular are characterized by significant uncertainty, for instance stemming from the ongoing global integration of markets, macroeconomic shocks as well as changes in regulatory sentiment. Given this uncertainty, traditional models of strategy that assume a stable or at least 'predictably unpredictable' future offer decision-makers poor guidance.
Moving beyond these conceptions, Made in China suggests that entrepreneurs and executives should explicitly acknowledge the 'fog of the future' and learn to live with it successfully. Drawing on a carefully selected and researched sample of eight Chinese companies in the fields of information technology, telecommunications, white goods as well as food and beverages (for example, including personal computer maker Legend/Lenovo, telecom equipment provider UTStarcom, white goods manufacturer Haier and beverage producer Wahaha), Sull then provides a comprehensive general framework for managing effectively in an uncertain world.
A number of key elements form the heart of this framework. First and foremost, adopting the 'fog of the future' view compels entrepreneurs and managers to realize that 'golden opportunities' for and 'sudden-death threats' to...