The China Business Conundrum
Ensure That "Win-Win" Doesn't Mean Western Companies Lose Twice
1. Auflage November 2024
384 Seiten, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Revealing account of the struggles and surprises when forming a financial joint venture with China
The China Business Conundrum: Ensure That "Win-Win" Doesn't Mean Western Companies Lose Twice describes former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) Ken Wilcox's firsthand challenges he encountered in four years "on the ground" trying to establish a joint venture between SVB and the Chinese government to fund local innovation design--and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) efforts to systematically sabotage the project and steal SVB's business model. This book provides actionable advice drawn from meticulous notes Wilcox took from interviews with people from all walks of Chinese life, including Party and non-Party members, the business elite, and domestic workers.
Describing a China he found fascinating and maddeningly complex, this book explores topics including:
* Difficulties in transplanting SVB's model to China, from misunderstandings about titles and responsibilities to pitched battles over toilet design
* Ethics and practices widely adopted by Chinese businesses today and why China must be met with realistic expectations
* Wilcox's own honest missteps and the painfully learned lessons that came afterwards
Engrossing, enlightening, and entertaining, The China Business Conundrum: Ensure That "Win-Win" Doesn't Mean Western Companies Lose Twice is an essential cautionary tale and guidebook for all Western bankers, C-suite executives, consultants, and entrepreneurs seeking to do business within China.
"This account of establishing a bank for start-ups in China simply gallops along with twists and turns and surprises. It's a salutary tale of how Western assumptions, hopes, and expectations prime companies for failure in the Chinese context. I'm giving copies to all my CEOs, past and present." - Felda Hardymon, MBA Class of 1975 Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, emeritus; Partner emeritus, Bessemer Venture Partners.
"The inside story of how Silicon Valley Bank stumbled in China." -David Barboza, co-founder of The Wire: China, former two-time Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist
"Ken Wilcox is uniquely qualified to offer insights on doing business in China. In particular, his admonitions about the Chinese Communist Party and its ability to control everything it touches are chilling. As the author of The China Business Conundrum, Ken will bring you to understand that you are most at risk when you come to believe that you have a full grasp of your situation. In all probability, You are not even close! Read it once and then read it again!" - Alex W. "Pete" Hart, former CEO of Mastercard International and financial services industry veteran, former Chairman of the Board, Silicon Valley Bancshares
"While working in China, banking executive Ken Wilcox kept his eyes open and became deeply skeptical about the CCP's willingness to actually collaborate with foreign businesses. The China Business Conundrum is a much-needed antidote to Party bromides about "win-win" scenarios." - Orville Schell, Vice President, Asia Society & Arthur Ross Director, Center on U.S-China Relations
