by Jack Perkowski
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Product Description
The first book by a westerner who built a company in China from scratch
The emergence of China as a world economic power is one of the biggest stories of our time. Every business that intends to be an important part of the fast-changing global economy needs to know how to play the game in China. Who better to be your guide than Jack Perkowski, the pioneer who went to China in the early 1990s. Equipped with just a concept, he built a company step-by-step from the ground up–ASIMCO Technologies–that became a major player in China’s fast-growing automotive business.
Perkowski’s story is as rich, involving, and improbable as those of nineteenth-century titans such as Rockefeller and Carnegie or of twentieth-century ones like Michael Dell and Bill Gates, but with one obvious difference: They and others built their companies when America was emerging or dominant. Perkowski built his at the dawn of the Chinese century.
Perkowski’s insights about the challenges and potential of western involvement in today’s great Chinese expansion–gained on the ground in China itself over the past fifteen years–are of inestimable value and relevance to us all. For instance:
• The good news about China: Everything is possible. The bad news: Nothing is easy.
• To build a business in China, you must develop a local management team–avoiding both former bureaucrats of the state-run enterprises and the country’s new breed of wildcat entrepreneurs.
• You must learn the real reason why China is able to produce goods so cheaply.
• Forget your notions about the Chinese economy being rigidly controlled by Beijing–it is, in fact, highly decentralized and locally driven. As the Chinese say, “The mountains are high and the emperor is far away.”
Perkowski tells his story with clarity, lots of humor, and a gripping sense of adventure. He takes us along on his own version of the Long March, when he visited two factories a day for nine months, hitting every province, going through endless rounds of dinners and the inevitable drinking games, and eating what seemed like every part of every animal. He vividly describes what it’s like to be a westerner living and working in China and the dramatic transformation he’s seen in the country, from a place left behind by the modern world to a place where a new world is being born.
Filled with hard-nosed lessons for anyone with ambitions of breaking into the Chinese market, and a rich source of practical wisdom about the realities of China today, Managing the Dragon answers the questions people ask Perkowski most often about his unique experience, as well as those they never think of asking–but should.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 A Great Read!!, 2008-07-09
As an American who has lived in Beijing for the past 13 years and who had never managed to meet Jack until recently, I just have to say that this book was a tremendous read. Jack's enthusiasm, humility, humanity and wisdom permeates the book and it was never ever tedious.
As an executive search consultant who specialized and recruited top Chinese managers long before it became fashionable or at all profitable in the 90's, I can honestly say that his management lessons are spot on. I can't imagine what it would be like to live in China without speaking Chinese, but applaud him for his accomplishments. He may have been a bit too harsh on his expatriate folks which broad generalizations and characterizations (I know some of the personalities involved there, and it could have been wrong selection!!)
His emphasis as well on 2nd and 3rd tier cities is also excellent, though he has the luxury of not requiring bi-lingual employees as do most MNC's.
I recommend this book both as a great china lesson, but also as an inspirational and interesting read that truly flows!
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 Good entrepreneurial spirit but, 2008-06-26
is this worthwhile?
Let us analyze the facts. Jack moved his family to China, and spoke no Chinese. As a Wall Street banker, he got $400 million private equity funds to invest in China. Fifteen years later, Asimco Technologies has 17 plants and offices in China hiring 12,000 workers with the
annual revenue less than $500 million. The company is private, therefore, the valuation is not known.
If you invest in any stock, mutual fund or bonds with $400 million capital, you will get at least $1 billion (after 15 long years) even you are not a great fund manager.
Surviving the government red tape, lawsuit, bribery, and misc worker issues in China, Jack did a great job, creating a company in China for the long term.
But from the return on investment calculation, it is not good at all.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Showcases lessons about entrepreneurialism learned during the author's adventure of running a huge company he built in China., 2008-06-08
I liked this book. It's another one of those books where the author was a successful W-2 worker for a large US company whom decided to go out on his own and try to build a large company that he could own and run. Last October (2007) I read and reviewed on Amazon Maxine Clark's story that she told in "The Bear Necessities of Business" (ISBN: 0470139056). The instant book being reviewed has a similar feel to me to Ms. Clark's book. I think both books are worth an entrepreneur's time to learn how someone else built a big company. The instant book has the following 19 chapters:
0. Introduction
1. Who is Jack Perkowski?
2. Stay in New York or move to Hong Kong?
3. A blank-sheet approach to China
4. 100 factories in 40 cities
5. Eating, drinking, and sleeping on the long march
6. Developing our new China management strategy
7. Closing China's management gap
8. Guerrilla warfare in Anhui
9. A peaceful transition in Langfang
10. An election in Mao's backyard
11. Building for the long term
12. Decentralization and China's local governments
13. China's different cost perspective
14. China's two markets
15. China's technology gap
16. Establishing a business in China
17. Challenges or running a business in China today
18. Where is it all headed?
The author is CEO of ASIMCO Tech, which is among China's largest automobile components makers with 12,000 employees in 17 plants in 8 provinces. He founded the company in 1994 after being a successful investment banker for Paine Webber. The book is split into three sections:
I. Author's story (1-5)
II. Management issues (6-11)
III. Key themes author sees in China (12-18)
This book is about entrepreneurship, about doing something different, and about being an American starting a business in China. It's a book spoken with clarity, humor, and about the author's adventure that he is still riding. It is a book with lessons learned for the trenches. And it is definitely a book anyone interested in import/expert between the US and China should read.
It is clear, and the author reminds us, that this book is full of practical wisdom about the realities of China today. China has many problems: (1) it doesn't use capital well, (2) it's legal system is not reliable, (3) information doesn't flow freely through it, (4) it suffers from slow technological development, and (5) its economy is highly decentralized and locally driven. 5 stars!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Required reading for the Olympics, 2008-05-02
I must admit I wasn't convinced I would enjoy the subject matter. A friend told me it was a great read, and I agree totally after completing CHINESE ED 101!! The humor, warmth, and insight of what Mr. Perkowski has been doing in China comes through in great fashion. With the Olympics on the horizon, we've only been getting the bad news from China, so "Managing the Dragon" really gives us incite of what the people are like and how the country functions on a day to day routine. It should be required reading for everyone going to the Olympics.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Doing Business in China , 2008-04-22
Just finished Jack Perkowski's Managing the Dragon, and excellent book in three sections. I was fortunate enough to work with Jack and his team as a consultant for several years. Jack was generous with his time and insight, is able to distill the complex into plain-speak (some memorable phrases in the book), and an excellent listener. All are qualities enbedded in the book. Jack's best advice? Interested in doing business in China, then go there for yourself. This book will serve as a good framework for your fact-finding and due-dlilgence, but keep an open-mind, seek multiple views, and remember: in China, nothing is easy; everything possible. Oh ... and watch out for the mao-tai
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