Gold Rush [Management China]

China is no longer the land of textiles and toys, and to maintain your presence there you need a sophisticated business strategy. Nick Smith talks to Jonathan Woetzel, author of ´Operation China´, a new book on the emerging economic superpower. China has been open to business now for a quarter of a century. For many the first phase of doing business with the country was simply to have a presence. But today that´s not enough everybody has a presence in China, and simply being these is not enough. Put it this way: 450 out of the Fortune 500 are there, and of the 10 per cent that aren´t it´s a safe assumption to say that the majority don´t want to be. It´s now all about having the right strategy for doing business there and McKinsey consultant Jonathan Woetzel (along with co-author Jimmy Hexter) has written the book on it. ´Operation China: From Strategy to Execution´ is an extraordinarily clear and approachable analysis of how to get results in a continent-sized country that to most of us is still a closed book. The title is somewhat unfortunate, as China´s gerontocracy leads the world in the frequency with which it implements its death sentence. But you can´t judge a book by its title, and what goes on between the boards is valuable information.