One Billion Customers

I just recently finished One Billion Customers by James McGregor. It’s my favorite book on doing business in China so far. Over the last year I’ve also read HBR on Doing Business in China, The Chinese Century, and China, Inc. I’m about half way through The Search for Modern China, a massive tome on the history of China from 1600 to the present.

McGregor does not spend much time in his book going over economic facts and figures, but instead uses a dozen or so case studies to explore various aspects of the Chinese business culture. Consequently, I feel his book gave the most accurate picture of China, at least from the perspective of a Western manager facing Eastern markets. He also used one of the first chapters to review China’s recent history (as in the last 200 years) which many books ignore. Context is everything in China, so without a proper understanding of the past, the way into the future is difficult to navigate.

However, McGregor doesn’t dwell on the past (and neither should anyone approaching China). Instead, he suggests China is both a startup and a turn around:

... what I was describing was a China that is simultaneously the world’s largest startup and the world’s largest turnaround. The country can draw on a two-thousand-year tradition, but it also is inhaling Western business know-how and technology and doing everything at the same time and for the first time. That is why China has been able to progress so quickly.

This wouldn’t be the only book I’d read on China, but it’s a nice break from the page after page citing of economic figures that many Chinese business guides are filled with. Even if you’re not particularly interested in doing business in China, the stories are engaging and entertaining, making it a good book all around.