Mr. CHINA! Just watched him on C-span today to plug his book.
Not that america is a bastion of truth with our recent accounting scandals, mutual fund scandals, fannie freddie scandals, corrupt business leaders etc etc - crook in china or crook in america - either way the little guy with no big money or big friends gonna get fried.
amazon.com
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A British businessman with a background in accounting and auditing, Clissold joined up with an entrepreneur in the early 1990s and set out to buy shares of Chinese firms and to work to make them more profitable. Within two years, Clissold's venture owned shares in 20 Chinese businesses, with 25,000 employees among them, but the story really centers on Clissold's encounters with the nation's 'institutionalized confusion.' Firing entrenched middle managers became a protracted process that led to factory riots and employees using company funds to set up competing businesses; the anticorruption bureau demanded cash bribes before opening investigations. Clissold's narrative is somewhat aimless, slipping from one misadventure (taking American fund managers to a condom factory) to the next, and there's a certain amount of too-easy humor derived from the exoticism of Chinese culture (e.g., the inevitable banquet where unusual body parts of rabbit and deer are served). Even in these passages, though, Clissold's fundamental respect for the Chinese culture is unmistakable, and the scenes where he leaves his office and interacts directly with the people can be quite vividly detailed. By the late '90s, millions of dollars poured into the companies yield disastrous results from an investment standpoint (and Clissold himself suffers a heart attack), but the Chinese economy as a whole hums ever more loudly. Crossover appeal of this title may be limited, but business readers are likely to be entertained.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Product Description:
The idea of China has always exerted a pull on the adventurous type. There is a kind of entrepreneurial Westerner who just can't resist it: red flags, a billion bicycles, and the largest untapped market on earth. What more could they want? After the first few visits, they start to feel more in tune and experience the first stirrings of a fatal ambition: the secret hope of becoming the Mr. China of their time.
In the 1990s, China went through a miraculous transformation from a closed backwater to the workshop of the world. Many smart young men saw this transformation coming and mistook it for their destiny. Not a few rushed East to gain strategic footholds, plant their flags, and prosper. After all, the Chinese had numbers on their side: a seemingly endless population, a thirst for resources, and the tide of history. What they needed was Western knowledge and lots of capital. Or so it seemed ...
Mr. China tells the rollicking story of one man's encounter with the Chinese. Armed with hundreds of millions of dollars and a strong sense that he and his partners were -- like missionaries of capitalism -- descending into the industrial past to bring the Chinese into the modern world, Clissold got the education of a lifetime.
The ordinary Chinese workers, business owners, local bureaucrats, and party cadres Clissold encountered were some of the most committed, resourceful, and creative operators he would ever meet. They were happy to take the foreigner's money but resisted just about anything else. At every turn, the locals seemed one step ahead of Clissold's crew threatening to take the Westerners for all they were worth.
In the end, Mr. China isn't a tale of business or an expatriate's love for his adopted land. It's one man's coming-of-age story where he learns to respect and admire the nation he sought to conquer.
some comments:
By any measure, Clissold's tale is a businessperson's nightmare, a sort of Wall Street meets the Wild, Wild East. Politics infects every transaction, rules and contracts are broken as fast as they are made and signed, paperwork is a mess, accounting principles are nonexistent, money disappears or moves from one bank account to another to hide it, local managers lie, embezzle, or compete against their own employer, and everyone works hardest when they are busy lining their own pockets. Attempts to fire managers spark massive lawsuits, beatings, and even riots. Clissold spends nearly all his time putting out fires, holding off his investment fund managers, arguing with Chinese managers he has fired, and pleading his case to judges, government officials, and Party representatives. The harder he works, the more the fund's companies fail until his own health suffers.
Tim Clissold tells his story in a surprisingly matter-of-fact tone; he deserves to be far angrier and more cynical. He writes in an entertaining and engaging style, mixing a sort of detached amusement about events with some interesting cultural background. His Chinese managers and officials come across a bit too stereotyped and some of his background is clichéd, but those shortcomings are far outweighed by his outrageous exploits. The only false note occurs in the final two paragraphs of the book when the author attempts - badly and unnecessarily - to soften his message and rationalize the dishonest and outlandish behaviors he has spent the previous 248 pages describing.
While Western companies have almost universally eschewed the joint venture approach in China, MR. CHINA nevertheless offers valuable insights about doing business on the mainland. From my own three or four years' observation living in China, I can say that much of Clissold's cautionary advice applies today. Agreements and contracts are still more symbolic than enforceable, adhered to only if and when it suits Chinese interests. I recommend this book highly for both its entertainment value as well as its lessons learned.
After so much horrible expeirience, Mr. Clissold deserves credit for writing such an entertaining book without looking bitter or angry. It seems much of the investment under his management have evaporated in the 'learning process,' and I wonder how much profit has been generated so as to justify the investment frenzy in China. On page 127, the author tried to deal with the frustration philosophically that, literally, for every deadbeat, selfish factory director or corrupt government official, there's a whole bunch of smart, hardworking people willing to focus on business growth. Therefore, the author figured that his decision of staying in China and continuing to invest was justified for the sake of the 'good' Chinese, many of whom were his close friends. Given the fact that few foreign ventures have managed to make money in China (maybe except some sweatshops for export purpose), I'm afraid Mr. Clissold's philosophy was more based on emotion than rationality. |
