Zhibin Gu: why globalization must accelerate vs global financial crisis? : Miami IMC

Get inside knowledge and analysis from finance and management guide book: China’s Global Reach

Borderless Business, National Competition, Politics, and Globalization (book excerpts)

by George Zhibin Gu

Afterword
China, United States and Global Development
by Andre Gunder Frank

Part V

Globalization in Light of History

SUMMARY

(1). For ages, East and West have moved on independent orbits. The divergence widened even more when Europe expanded globally starting some 600 years ago. Outward expansion and exploitation was the passion of the day. Along the way, the Industrial Revolution took place. This has offered vast advantages to the West, which quickly altered global map in all sorts of ways. The vast advantages in the traditional farming societies like China and India were gone. Consequently, China and India, among other developing nations, tried hard to close their doors as a way to fend off the Western expansionist power.

(2). But as time went by, the waves of industrialization and development reached Asia. It started with the smaller Asian nations and regions like Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and Malaysia. Among them, Japan’s influence was the biggest. This group of new players altered the global economic map significantly. However, Japan’s retreat since 1991 has opened doors wide for Western Inc. to tap into Asia in big ways.

(3). Today, one most significant change is happening with China and India. Their full embracing of globalization is bound to create vast effects. Though both nations started this new growth at an extremely low level, their speed and scale is unprecedented. Also unprecedented are the new opportunities rising from these frontier markets.

(4). Like never before, all developing nations are in a hurry in participating in the world development as now. The sudden surge of so many late developers has created vast new opportunities for the world. Now wealth creation is truly a global affair. No nation can truly refuse to take a part in this new movement without producing a mess for itself. More significantly, the entire world is moving toward the same development orbit for the very first time in man’s history.

At the same time, sharing and collaboration as well as competition and learning have rapidly become a new norm for global life. This trend will only strengthen as benefits go to all participating parties. Hence, the world enters a new era, the era of great emergence of global civilizations. Though still at the very beginning, its development can hardly be reversed despite all the worries and conflicts.

(5). But challenges are plentiful as well. The old world order is centered on the developed West, which can no longer fare well with the changing realities. Hence, there is an urgent need to create a new mindset. But reaching the stage is easier said than done; and

(6). For China’s sustained growth, there is an urgent need to walk out the old bureaucratic framework. China’s new socioeconomic forces as well its ever-increasing openness promote fundamental changes. At this time, opportunities and challenges are equally great.
[...]
CONTENTS
Introduction
Three New Lessons
Growing Up in China
Going International
Returning Home
This Small Book
The Big Picture

Acknowledgments

Part I China as a New Global Theater

1. Ambitions of Foreign Multinationals in China
Today’s Versions of Columbus and Magellan
International Rush
Why Are They Here?
Why China?
One Big Factory-Market
More Sectors, More Players

2. The Business of China Is Business!
“Empty Talk Destroys Prosperity!”
Foreign Bankers
Spouses and Children
Welcome!

3. Creation of a Global Manufacturing Center
Unexpected Contributors
Arrival of Indian Companies
A Crowded Market
Galanz: the Manufacturer of the World
Convenient Settings
Future Trends

4. The Ultimate Driving Force: Explosive Consumption
Unexpected Development
Impressive Outcome
Continued Consumption Surge

5. Sharp Rise of Private Sector
One U.S. Banker’s Discovery
40 Million New Businesspeople
Rural and Urban Entrepreneurs
Buttons Create a New Industrial Town
Jinjiang, Fujian: Biggest Exporting Center for Sport Shoes
Low-End Players

6. All Players Are Important
Competing International Players
Auto Market
International Banks
International Listings
Consumer Views

Part II Global Interactions, Business Dealings, and Job Transfers

7. Learning - A Big Industry
Demand for Education
A Top School
International Involvement

8. The Officials’ Global Reach
Officials Lead the Way
Guangdong versus Inland
Abolishing Bureaucratic Tricks
International First
New York versus Beijing

9. “Capital Is Not Enough”
No Shortcuts
Two Lessons to Remember
Volkswagen versus Beijing Jeep
“Capital Is Not Enough”
Ericsson’s Seven Mistakes
Bashing Carrefour

10. Global Job Transfers
One International Question
Hiring by Foreign Multinationals
New Era of Global Job Transfers
Job Worries around the World
Hiring by Chinese Players
Global Job Transfers: China versus India

Part III China’s New International Experiences

11. Price, Price, Price
A Chinese Edge
GE in China
Japan’s Global Efforts
Cisco versus Huawei
Microsoft in China
Global Price Reductions

12. When Can Chinese Companies Become Global?
Weakness at Home
Foreign Observations
Low Benefits for China
State Banks: “The Troublemakers”
A Long Way to Go

13. Chinese Multinationals
Some Sizable Chinese Companies
Buying Into International Markets
Overseas Operations
Creating More Partnerships

14. Bringing Foreigners In
Trade Fairs
Industrial Parks
Foreign Acquisitions

Part IV China’s Reform at Home: The Unfinished Task

15. Problems Outpacing Solutions
The Ownership Issue
State Assets and Death on the Nile
“Two Pockets of the Same Jacket”
Lack of Weapons and True Owners

16. How Can a Man Still Wear Baby Clothes?
Credit Crisis and Banking Problems
The Richest Man in Shanghai
Corruptive Partnerships

17. Crises of State Sector
Rapid Changes in the Managerial Class
Hiring Foreign Managers
Long Live Competition!
Reform Difficulties
Painful Layoffs
Government Trimming

18. When Can China Achieve Meaningful Restructuring?
A Saturated Market
Difficulties for a Rational Order
The CEO in China and Elsewhere
Who Is Responsible for Wealth Creation?
Buying Parties Ready?
Need for Greater Determination

19. Employment Traps
Resident Permits
Lives of the Migrants
Employment Difficulties for Other Groups
Death of a College Graduate

20. Bureaucratic Tails
Tails Everywhere
Lucky International Players
“The Red Building”

Part V Globalization in Light of History

21. An Unbroken Circle?
The British Isles as a Global Center
China’s Missed Opportunities
The U.S. Way: Dumping Losers
Expansion and Wealth Creation, Past and Present

22. Universal Companies and Global Expansion
Bigger and Bigger Multinationals
First Strategy: A Strong Home Base
Second Strategy: Creating a New Form of Dominance
Third Strategy: A True Global Reach
China’s Participation in the World Economy

23. More on the Circle
Who Has Affected Globalization the Most?
First Factor: Japan’s Global Reach and Retreat
What Is Going On in Tokyo?
South Korea: Glories and Bubbles
Second Factor: Asia’s Financial Crisis
Third Factor: The World Trade Organization
Unexpected Developments
Global Development Orbit

24. How Does China Achieve Sustained Growth?
A Great Paradox
Effective Government, Different Role
The Big Picture
A New Model
Getting Out of the Box
A New World Order

Afterword: China, United States and Global Development
by Andre Gunder Frank

Notes

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

George Zhibin Gu is a journalist/consultant based in Guangdong, China. A native of Xian, he obtained education at Nanjing University in China and Vanderbilt University and the University of Michigan in the United States. He holds two MS degrees and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

For the past two decades, he has been an investment banker and business consultant with a focus on China. His work focuses on helping international businesses to invest in China and the Chinese companies to expand overseas. He has worked for Prudential Securities, Lazard, and State Street Bank, among others. He generally covers mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, venture capital, business expansion, and restructuring.

Also, he is a journalist focusing on China in relation to global development. His articles or columns have appeared in Asia Times, Beijing Review, The Seoul Times, Financial Sense, Gurus Online, Money Week, Online Opinion, Asia Venture Capital Journal, and Sinomania, among others.

He is the author of three additional books, China Beyond Deng: Reforms in the PRC (McFarland, 1991),

China and New World Order: How Entrepreneurship, Globalization, and Borderless Business Reshape China and World (Fultus, 2006), and Made in China: Players and Challengers in the 21st Century (English edition forthcoming; Portuguese edition, Centro Atlantico, 2005). He is a member of World Association of International Studies hosted by Stanford University.