cover image Managing the Dragon: How I'm Building a Billion-Dollar Business in China

Managing the Dragon: How I'm Building a Billion-Dollar Business in China

Jack Perkowski. Crown Business, $27.5 (325pp) ISBN 978-0-307-39353-1

In 1990, the author left a successful Wall Street career at PaineWebber to take advantage of business opportunities in Asia. He had big-picture reasons: a desire for a new career direction and a general ""Go East young man"" sense, but little detailed knowledge and few plans. By 1994, he had moved to China and begun building an automobile components business, using capital raised privately in New York to buy majority stakes in existing Chinese factories and later to build his own. Today, his ASIMCO Technologies is a $500 million dollar company with a leading position in China and a growing global presence. At times it seems as if the author has little more than a can-do attitude and strong personal relationships with Chinese partners to surmount the many problems of a cross-cultural organization in a rapidly changing country with many impediments to modern business. In the end, more than any specific strategy it is mutual trust that makes things work,. This book can be read as an inspiring story of business success, a personal journey or a case study in building a business that combines the best features of global management and finance with Chinese entrepreneurial energy and talent. It's a good story with some valuable morals about making money and friends.