Book review—The roads to world-class new markets lead west in China

✍ Scribed by Gillian Rice

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 69 KB
• Volume: 27
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1932-2054
• DOI: 10.1002/joe.20206

✦ Synopsis

Deng Xiaoping famously depicted his pragmatic approach to economic reform in China as "crossing the river by feeling the stones." Jimmy Hexter and Jonathan Woetzel, in Operation China, urge CEOs to visit China in person to learn for themselves exactly how different or similar China is from their expectations before committing to a purpose. They tell how Bose Corporation's top twenty executives went to China in 2006 to obtain firsthand impressions. Each executive spent a couple of hours discussing opinions about audiovisual equipment with members of a Chinese household. They made the surprising discovery that even in a country with a significantly lower standard of living that the U.S., consumers were willing to purchase high-end home entertainment products. These household visits made a lasting impression on the executive team. The value of first-person experience is a recurring theme in both Operation China and China Road. Rob Gifford's book portrays China, its peoples and the changes that are occurring, through the record of his trip along Route 312, from Shanghai to the border with Kazakhstan.