The Multinational Corporation in China: Controlling Interests

By Stephen Todd Rudman, Blackwell Publishing, August 31 2006, 264 pages

Given the rapid growth of the Chinese economy and the increasingly close relationship between multinational corporations and their Chinese subsidiaries, ensuring effective management of MNC affiliates in China is essential. Rudman, with 20 years of business experience behind him, provides precisely this in an in-depth study of four large US multinational corporations and their Chinese affiliates. While some chapters are heavy on the theory of management control, Rudman does manage to add a personal touch to his analysis through interviews with business consultants, managers and lawyers and the use of a wide range of sources including newspapers, periodicals and company documents. Rudman is thorough in his analysis citing real cases to give a comprehensive view of how to run and manage a business in China. Controlling Interests is extremely useful reading for senior executives who seek a better understanding of the complexities of dealing with Chinese businesses and how to manage their own affiliate companies in China.

China's Global Reach: Markets, Multinationals, and Globalization

By George Zhibin Gu, Fultus Corporation, July 2006, 252 pages

A Chinese journalist with two decades experience as an investment banker and business consultant, Gu provides an honest and no nonsense approach to understanding business in China today. He is not afraid to criticize the Chinese Communist Party and provides an astute and insightful introduction into the complex workings of the Chinese bureaucratic system and its effect on private Chinese initiatives and on foreign companies trying to do business in China. In turn, China's Global Reach also looks at the influence of foreign investment on the Chinese economy, government and society through foreign multinationals, including all the major players like Microsoft, Siemens and Bank of America. It offers numerous studies of emerging Chinese multinationals such as Lenovo, Sinopec and Huawei, exposing the strengths and weaknesses of Chinese corporations and their foreign counterparts. Gu provides an extremely up-to-date commentary on China's economy which is straightforward and reliable and he succeeds in conveying a huge amount of information in a very personable and reader friendly style.