Mr. China

Type: BusinessAuthor: Tim Clissold  My rating: Buy now
Posted by Dominic Book introduction: This is a memoir of an Englishman who felt really attached to China since late 1980s. He came to Beijing in 1990s to study Mandarin and travel around China. He saw the opportunity of bringing capital from Wall Street to China and started investing into a selected set of industry, hoping to dominate certain market through numerous Joint Venture in the early 1990s. That was the time when it was hard for businesses (SOEs state-own enterprises) to raise capital within China. Together with a successful Wall Street banker, they raised US$418 Million in a number of fund raising round. Soon they find that doing business in China is much harder than they thought, and their investments have started to go terribly wrong. This book is a recount of the various battles that they fought against the Chinese partners of their joing ventures.
My review: Highly recommended for everyone who plans to work, invest, start business in China. China has changed since, but to read and learn about its past and how/why things have evolved in certain ways and what lessons did foreign investors learn through numerous failed JV are all highly insightful. The situation described in the books are so so so true, the attitude towards foreigners, the opportunity to grab money fast during an infant stage of development of a huge nation and the lack of respect of contracts. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.