Saturday morning: Time to brainbang with the colleagues

B O O K R E P O R T

The book ( Harvard Business School Press, 231 pp., $29.95) The authors Donald N. Sull with Yong Wang. The first rule of doing business in China is throw out the rule book, says Donald Sull, an associate professor at London Business School. “ Managers must abandon the illusion that the future stretches out before them and that they can … plan with accuracy and certainty. Instead, managers should adopt an unfolding view of time in which a steady stream of unanticipated threats and opportunities emerge.” While Sull’s book provides useful insights for foreign executives into the Chinese way of business, it isn’t intended as a primer for offshore companies planning on doing business in the country. Rather, it offers examples of the Chinese way of entrepreneurship that has developed since the country gave the go-ahead to capitalism. Sull believes companies that have made a sucess under the constraints of the Chinese environment must have things to teach Western executives. But it is a stretch to think Western types would accept many Chinese ideas. Chinese executives are used to regimentation. For instance, the Haier Group, China’s largest home-appliance maker, requires its senior executives to take part in a training session every Saturday morning, involving “ teamwork” and “ brainstorming.” Teamwork and brainstorming would not do the trick in China any more than it will in this country. The key, which this well- written work underscores, is the vision and virtuosity of a single person. It’s what we call leadership. John Simpson, Financial Post