A navigable, sprightly primer on an often elusive Asian market.
A business book examines the challenges of establishing a foreign company in China.
How does a foreign business gain a foothold in the vast Chinese economy? In this slim volume, Sang and Ulrich present a series of case studies of companies that have succeeded and failed in the enticingly large, albeit potentially disastrous, market. The enterprises analyzed include, among others, Amazon, Hyundai, and Intel. Readers are given a breakdown of what happened with each business and what can be learned from the experience. Amazon, for instance, spent some 15 years trying to establish itself in China with little to show for its exertions. The causes for such an outcome are many, including the inability of Amazon’s “Buy Box” feature to be of much use to Chinese vendors. South Korean carmaker Hyundai made careful progress in its endeavor only to suffer from an unexpected political event involving the United States deployment of a missile defense system in Seoul. The authors point out that “China strenuously objected to its deployment, arguing it could be used to spy on its territory. Anti-Korea protests erupted across China.” Italian luxury retailer Ermenegildo Zegna took a gamble in opening a store in Beijing in the 1990s. That bet finally paid off after “five years of operating losses,” with the brand establishing itself as the choice for a certain class of “Rich Uncle” businessmen. But with fashion tastes ever changing, Zegna now finds it must shift to the needs of a new generation of wealthy shoppers. Such examples are merely a sampling of the information provided in this organized guide. If readers find some points dull, such as the finer aspects of why, say, the Amazon logistics network did not translate well to China, a summation is provided at the end of the pertinent chapter for a faster look. But the work is at its best when addressing more unexpected topics. One standout portion involves Norwegian Cruise Line, which, in its attempt to tailor to the wants of Chinese customers, went so far as to design the ship Joy to cater to their specific needs. Things did not ultimately tilt in Norwegian’s favor yet the details illustrate just how far a company will go in trying to crack a lucrative market—and how it can come up short even with its best effort.
A navigable, sprightly primer on an often elusive Asian market. (notes)Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-61363-108-9
Page Count: 190
Publisher: Wharton School Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Smart, engaging sportswriting—good reading for organization builders as well as Pats fans.
Prolific writer Benedict has long blended two interests—sports and business—and the Patriots are emblematic of both. Founded in 1959 as the Boston Patriots, the team built a strategic home field between that city and Providence. When original owner Billy Sullivan sold the flailing team in 1988, it was $126 million in the hole, a condition so dire that “Sullivan had to beg the NFL to release emergency funds so he could pay his players.” Victor Kiam, the razor magnate, bought the long since renamed New England Patriots, but rival Robert Kraft bought first the parking lots and then the stadium—and “it rankled Kiam that he bore all the risk as the owner of the team but virtually all of the revenue that the team generated went to Kraft.” Check and mate. Kraft finally took over the team in 1994. Kraft inherited coach Bill Parcells, who in turn brought in star quarterback Drew Bledsoe, “the Patriots’ most prized player.” However, as the book’s nimbly constructed opening recounts, in 2001, Bledsoe got smeared in a hit “so violent that players along the Patriots sideline compared the sound of the collision to a car crash.” After that, it was backup Tom Brady’s team. Gridiron nerds will debate whether Brady is the greatest QB and Bill Belichick the greatest coach the game has ever known, but certainly they’ve had their share of controversy. The infamous “Deflategate” incident of 2015 takes up plenty of space in the late pages of the narrative, and depending on how you read between the lines, Brady was either an accomplice or an unwitting beneficiary. Still, as the author writes, by that point Brady “had started in 223 straight regular-season games,” an enviable record on a team that itself has racked up impressive stats.
Smart, engaging sportswriting—good reading for organization builders as well as Pats fans.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982134-10-5
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
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