"One hour with this book will make you an expert on business in China." - Dick Gephardt, Majority-Minority Leader, U.S. House of Representatives, 1989-2002 “This book simplifies China in a very elegant and smart way. These distinguished authors tell you clearly what you most need to know right now.” - James McGregor, author of One Billion Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China "For most people, the intellectual return on time spent reading this book is almost unrivaled." - ValueWalk This is the China book for everyone - whether an expert or novice. It can be read in an hour and gives you most of what you need to know about China business today - and its increasing impact on the rest of the world. This "speed-read" book is the distilled knowledge of two Peking University business professors with over 30 years of experience on the ground in China and the emerging markets. According to authors Jeffrey Towson and Jonathan Woetzel, "if we had the undivided attention of someone from Ohio, Brighton or Lima for just one hour, this little book is what we would say." Author Jonathan Woetzel is a senior partner of McKinsey & Company. He opened McKinsey's Shanghai location in 1995 and has been resident since then. He currently the global leader of its Cities Special Initiative and the Asia-based Director of the McKinsey Global Institute. He co-chairs the Urban China Initiative along with Tsinghua University to catalyze the next stage of China’s urbanization. Author Jeffrey Towson is a private equity investor / consultant, keynote speaker, Peking University professor and author. His writing and speaking are on how rising Chinese consumers (and companies) are disrupting global markets. (#consumerchina). He was previously Head of Direct Investments for Middle East North Africa and Asia Pacific for Prince Alwaleed, nicknamed by Time magazine the “Arabian Warren Buffett” and arguably the world’s first private global investor.
A book with full of interesting facts and inspiring stories about China and some hardworking Chinese individuals. I didn't actually realize how powerful this country (our neighbor) was becoming until I read this book. It will give you some insight on China's current megatrends and its near future.
China megatrend # 1. Urbanization I learned that urbanization is the most important phenomenon shaping China. Every year, 18.5 million more people live in cities in China. In 2030, about 1 billion Chinese will be living in cities. The process began in the 1980s, when 20% of the Chinese population lived in cities. The urbanization process has a lot to do with "catching up" to the urbanization rate of 70-80% found in Japan, the USA, and in Europe and about transitioning from an agrarian economy.
Today, there are about 160 Chinese cities with over 1 million people. Many very big cities with over 60 million people are clusters of smaller cities. An example: Beijing / Tianjin in the North of China is a cluster of 28 cities. Overall, China has over 20 of these clusters.
China megatrend # 2: Manufacturing The construction business in China employs over 100 million people. China Vanke is one of the companies that has helped build apartments for the many people. The company is good at building quality homes at a low price - very quickly. That is what many people in China need. A big trend in the construction business is prefabrication, i.e. manufacturing the main pieces of a building, then transporting these main pieces to the construction site and assembling them there. By doing this, buildings can be constructed very quickly.
China megatrend # 3: Rising Chinese consumers. Location 936: Of the 83 million Chinese traveling overseas in 2013, 60% were leaving the country for the first time.
China megatrend # 4: Money There are 4 big banks in China: The Bank of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and the Agricultural Bank of China. These "big four" banks mostly evolved from government organizations into quasi-corporate, state-owned entities. I read that it can be a little difficult to find out who actually controls a bank such as the Bank of China. The bank is publicly traded out of Hong Kong and run like a banking corporation. However, the CEO of the bank does not report to the shareholders and is not appointed by them. The CEO is chosen by Organization department of the Communist party which technically owns nothing. But the CEO also holds a vice ministerial rank in the government which makes Bank of China somewhat of a government ministry as well.
The "big four" Chinese banks can function as an arm of the government into the economy. When the central government wants to influence various aspects of the Chinese economy, directing the lending of the big four banks is their most direct tool. For example, they can increase lending to state-owned enterprises and local governments and/or increase lending into strategic industries and infrastructure. In this regard, it is worth noting that the big state-owned enterprises to which lending from the big four banks tend to go, account for just 20% of the Chinese workforce. While small and medium enterprises employ 80% of the Chinese workforce, they account for only 20% of bank lending.
China megatrend # 5: The Internet I read, for example, about http://www.tencent.com/, a company founded by Ma Huateng and Zhang Zhidong, and about http://www.alibaba.com/ founded by Jack Ma and http://www.baidu.com/. Reading this part of the book, I learned that whereas in most countries, search and e-mail are the two most frequent online activities, it is instant messaging and online messaging that in China have been very popular. An example: Have a look at this map over QQ users currently online http://im.qq.com/online/index.shtml
At location 1500, I read that on average, Chinese Internet users spend about 20 hours per week online - 5-6 hours more per week than Americans. Another interesting fact for me was that 140 characters in Chinese can contain up to 5 times more information as in English. That is quite useful information when you like to use microblogging sites such as http://www.weibo.com/ and/or https://twitter.com/.
Livro fundamental para quem quer ter uma visão ampla a respeito da potencia que a China representa. Repleto de dados, estatísticas e exemplos, a leitura fica fluida, dinâmica. O único porém é que você acaba com um forte sentimento de que eles, de fato, vão dominar o mundo.
A quick guide to what is happening in China along with interesting real life stories of individuals/companies who benefited from these changes. These are the trends addressed in the book but China is always changing so I imagine another book can be written. 1. Urbanization is shaping modern China, putting great pressure on infrastructure, transportation and public services, and on critical resources like clean drinking water. At the same time, urbanization is creating a great deal of wealth. Some 350 million people have moved out of poverty since 1990 in China, with disposable income per capita rising 300 percent during that period. This will have a clear effect on real estate and other industries.
2. China is the world’s largest manufacturer, with more than $2.2 trillion in manufacturing value added. Its traditionally low labor costs are rising, and there is aggressive movement from low-tech assembly to high-tech manufacturing. The growth of China’s telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies outside its home market shows that China can successfully play this new role.
3. The rise of the Chinese consumers – The American middle class was the world economy’s growth engine throughout the 20th century, but China may take over this role. Urban Chinese are shopping to meet their needs, driving a growing demand for middle-class goods, food, and entertainment.
4. A lot of money – China has more than $15 trillion in bank deposits, and that figure grows by $2 trillion every year. A large lending market outside the formal banking system has emerged, complete with underground finance, off-balance-sheet lending, and wealth-management products that is invested in various projects. Most of these wealth-management products do not specify where funds are used. This creates risks.
5. Brainpower – The number of college graduates has risen from 1 million in 1998 to 7.5 million in 2012. Think of all this brainpower… There is also a surge in research-and-development investment in China. In 2009, China accounted for just 12.8 percent of the world’s R&D spending, well ahead of most European countries. On the other hand, there is also a substantial disconnect between education, employment, and other markers of Chinese brainpower.
6. The Chinese Internet – About 60 percent of the 618 million Chinese now online have only begun using the Internet in the past three to four years, and overall penetration remains at just 40 percent of the population, compared with approximately 80 percent in the United States. There is great potential for further growth.
A good and brief introduction to the Joneses market for people with little experience or understanding of the market. Having lived in and followed the country, there was little new in the trends themselves, but I found the background of the trends very interesting.
Given how brief it is, this is definitely a good read.
As assured, I finished "The One Hour China: just slightly over an hour and it has been a brief albeit insightful read. A casual read that talks about several important dosmestic trends that drives China's meteoric economic rise, it surely provided a glimpse into the country's economic engines and activities. Jeff and John's sense of humour that punctuated the book was definitely welcoming too.
Fun and fast read with just enough to tease about business in China. Definitely would like to learn more as a result of this and have a direction as a result of how this book is broken down. For someone with zero experience in China this is as enjoyable as any documentary you might find on Netflix albeit with what feels like less of a bias or agenda. And that's a good thing.
A must read for anyone interested in doing business with China. The book is full of fascinating and enlightening facts about China and its meteoric rise, the key major trends, and some fabulous insights. Immensely useful and easy to read. Not quite 60 minutes but who cares when it is so I’m interesting . Money and time worth spending.
This is one of the best books i have ever red. So easy to read and very immersive. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to do bussines or Invest in China. Also its a great book to understand development of Chinese economy. All in all fantastic book.
Read this for a class of mine. Very concise, super relevant to today, and I was highly entertained by the success stories from the likes of Tencent, Huawei, and Ping An Insurance. Just goes to show how China is definitely a global giant that continues to maintain its industrial dominance on the world.
Good primer on mega trends in China. China's economic growth is being driven by massive urbanization: over 100 cities with 1 million people, and within the next 10 years, 1 billion people living in cities in China.
Very good organisation of the book. Lucid examples to illustrate the different trends. Unbiased assessments (explanations relating to quality of banks etc. ) Respect for readers’ time considering that a fatter book is not possible to finishing few sittings.
Short book for someone who wants China and its growth as a global giant be simplified into trends, what fueled them, an iconic example of each, and some personal commentary.
It delivers what it promises on. China is too big a topic to be discussed comprehensively in one book or even a few. But living up to its claim of trying to explain some of the mega trends that have recently emerged in China with numbers and simplified examples, it is an engaging read.
Contains some zingers like, “Our argument is that there are powerful economic and demographic mega-trends shaping things on the ground – irrespective of booms and busts.” Took over a year to finish this “one hour” book.
Short and crispy introduction for those who want to understand China more. Brief description of 6 megatrends provdie a great structure, understanding but also inspiration and room for discussion and essay writing.
Gibt einen Überblick über China und wohin die Reise geht. In Sechs Megatrends zeigt er einige Erfolgsstorys und gibt spannende Einblicke indem er die massiven Zahlen in Relation setzt.
I was amazed how incredibly informative this void was. It was definitely one of the best books i read before going over to China in terms of preparation. It really gives a good idea of the current trends and some of the other things happening in China.
A very good, concise book on the magic of China's growth, its future and the problems with the system there. Very nicely structured with 6 key topics that define the China that is and how it may be.
So, it sure has the bull case about urbanisation, consumption, internet powerhouse, brain powerhouse and its manufacturing strength, but also has potential pitfalls about the lack of real ingenuity or the shadow banking system and the pollution problems.
All in all - an excellent synopsis for anyone who wants to get a good quick understanding of the China of 2013-2014