Case Studies on China Inc.: Going Global

Edited by : Dr. Nagendra V. Chowdary
ISBN : 978-81-314-1652-5
Price: $25  ( INR)
312 pages( Hardcover edition )

Lenovo, Haier, TCL, Huawei, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Nanjing Automotive and, now, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) – not long ago, these names would have elicited blank looks from most global business executives outside China. Now, however, these companies are part of a trend that is sending shockwaves through the business world. China has 16 companies in the Fortune Global 500 list, up from 11 in 2002. The value of overseas acquisitions completed by Chinese companies doubled in 2004, and 2005 has already seen a succession of highly ambitious bids. Chinese companies are looking to make a global impact and achieve high performance.

More and more Chinese companies, having won their spurs in their domestic market, are starting to explore new horizons through globalisation. In recent years, it has virtually become a fashion for Chinese companies to go global. The 1980s appeared to be an age of Japanese companies and brands on the world economic stage, but in the 1990s the Korean companies took over and everyone was talking about Korean companies and their products. In the 21st century, who will be in the spot light? Apparently, the Chinese companies are poised to be the next dominant player, as they are exerting increasing influence in the world’s arena and have a stronger desire to go global.

A combination of low wages, specialised regional networks and product exporters has enabled China to become the global economy’s low-cost supplier. Chinese companies have captured majority shares in a number of global product markets. However, China has now recognised that to achieve sustainable growth, it needs to develop its relationship with the global economy beyond a simple export-driven model. In the process, they face strategic and operational challenges centred around one central question: How should they make the leap from being successful Chinese enterprises to becoming excellent global ones?

However, most Chinese companies are facing the same problem during the process: despite great confidence and enthusiasm, they soon find that going global is much more difficult and thorny than they have expected. The case studies chronicled in this book, Case Studies on China Inc.: Going Global take the reader through how some of the Chinese companies have gone global, the challenges they faced both at home as well as in foreign lands?