New Asian Emperors - by George T Haley & Usha C V Haley & Chinhwee Tan (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Southeast Asia has a population of more than half a billion, yet its economy is dominated by about 40 families, most of Overseas Chinese descent. Their conglomerates span sectors as diverse as real estate, telecommunications, hotels, industrial goods, computers and sugar plantations. New Asian Emperors shows how and why Overseas Chinese companies continue to dominate the region and have extended their reach in East Asia, despite the Asian financial and SARS crises of the past decade. The authors base their conclusions on in-depth structured interviews spanning a decade with the often elusive Overseas Chinese CEOs including Li Ka-shing, Stan Shih, Victor Fung, Stephen Riady and Sukanto Tanoto, as well as on the strategic information that their companies use.

The analysis of the New Asian Emperors' present-day management techniques and practices draws on the history, culture and philosophical perspectives of the Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. In the midst of today's global economic crisis, this book also takes a fresh look at the role and management practices of the Overseas Chinese as they continue to create some of Asia's wealthiest and most successful companies.

New Asian Emperors explains:

• The sources and characteristics of Overseas Chinese management
• Whether Overseas Chinese management practices will spread in the same way that Japanese management did in the 1970s
• Whether Western management technologies have found themselves outmaneuvered in Asia's post-crisis arena
• The Overseas Chinese managers' strategies for the informational black hole of Southeast Asia and what Western managers can learn from them
• The New Asian Emperors' unique strategic perspectives and management styles revealed through exclusive, in-depth interviews
• The implications for successfully co-operating and competing with the Overseas Chinese of Southeast Asia

New Asian Emperors offers key insights into the Overseas Chinese and the important role that cultural roots play in their dominance of Southeast Asian business.

From the Back Cover

"This book is very timely as it examines in a serious but readable manner both the strengths and weaknesses of the Overseas Chinese business community, and provides a framework for understanding how this vibrant community will resurrect itself from the current crisis. Most books on the Overseas Chinese business community have veered between the extremes: either gushing with adulation, or portraying them as a semi-conspiracy. This book takes a balanced and holistic view, and waves in the ethical and cultural traits of the Overseas Chinese with their management practices." - Ho Kwon Ping

"Westerners have long assumed that there is one right way to organize and conduct large-scale business on a foundation of rationality, individuality and impersonality. this excellent traits on the business philosophies and practices o the powerful Overseas Chinese cannot fail to open Western minds to whole new ways of business thinking. This book is a must read for any business that wants to succeed in Asia. The authors have presents a masterly picture of how business is done by the Overseas Chinese. Many practices of multinationals need to be altered if they are to complete with, or work with, the Overseas Chinese. - Philip Kotler

"The Overseas Chinese represent what is arguably one of the most important economic and financial groups in the world, whose actions in the Pacific Rim and in other parts of the world have had profound effects on economic development, financial stability and instability, and the evolution of a wide range of industries in a global economic context. They also represent what is often a controversial economic and political force in countries dominated by other ethnic groups. This book provides a thoroughly authoritative and balanced assessment of the Overseas Chinese in terms of their roots, the role of family structures, management practices, and approaches to dealing with Overseas Chinese business groups - which themselves will have to evolve rapidly in the years ahead if they are to succeed as true multinational enterprises.." - Ingo Walter

About the Author

George T. Haley (PhD, University of Texas at Austin) is Professor of Marketing, University of New Haven and Founding Director, Center for International Industry Competitiveness. He has been faculty at ITESM-Monterrey (Mexico), National University of Singapore, Queensland University of Technology (Aus.), DePaul, Fordham, and Baruch College. He has presented seminars to managers/policymakers on four continents, including for the National Intelligence Council, and the United States International Trade Commission and testified before the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. He has over 100 articles, presentations and books including The Chinese Tao of Business. He consults with several multinational companies and governments in Asia, Australia, Latin America and the USA and serves on the Boards of Directors of listed companies, manufacturing organizations and government agencies.

Usha C. V. Haley (PhD, New York University) is Asia Programs Fellow, Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University and Research Associate at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, DC. She has been Professor at the University of New Haven and prior at University of Tennessee-Knoxville, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Australian National University, National University of Singapore and ITESM-Monterrey, Mexico. She has more than 150 publications, presentations and books including Multinational Corporations in Political Environments and The Chinese Tao of Business. She has testified before the Congressionally mandated US-China Economic and Security Review Commission and the Committee on Ways and Means, and presented before the US International Trade Commission. She serves on several corporate and government boards.

Chin Tiong Tan (PhD, Pennsylvania State University) is the Deputy President of Singapore Management University. He was a founding member of SMU and was its Provost from 1999 to 2008. He is active in management development and consulting. He designed and taught in many executive programs around the world, and is a regular speaker in the US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and South Africa. He was the Academic Advisor to Singapore Airline's Management Development Centre for more than 15 years. He is on the Boards of Directors of several listed companies and served as strategic and business advisor to many organizations. He is the co-author of Marketing Management: An Asian Perspective, 5th Edition, 2009, Prentice Hall (with Philip Kotler).