One Billion Customers by James McGregor

With a population of 1.3 billion people, China’s consumer market is more promising than those of North America and Europe. In addition, goods in China are produced at a lower cost. These facts have become the biggest attraction for the business of the world. Judging from the information in the book and the fact that he has lived for a long time in China, the author, James McGregor, knows what he is talking about.

According to McGregor, a businessman has to learn to be street-smart the Chinese way and has to learn to survive within a chaotic market where each deal making has its own lessons and tactics. He must also be on the lookout for the unpleasant surprises from his partners, consumers, and suppliers, since the theft of technology and trade secrets are common and the contracts with loopholes may cost a lot of money.

A businessman who is used to doing business in the customary way should forget about his old expectations. In China, business is difficult because of the very different style of operation both by the government and the people, as the rules of doing business fluctuate from business to business all the time.

The book contains eight chapters with additions of The Little Red Book of Business pages with bulleted suggestions at the end of each chapter. Putting everything in perspective in a nutshell, one of the suggestions after the third chapter says China’s modernization is aiming at “rule by law” not the “rule of law,” so relationships and personal power reign supreme..

The few stories of experience belonging to the author and to other businessman make delightful reading and the Cast of Characters pages in the beginning of the book help to understand what goes on in those stories. After reading through the book, one has to accept the words of the author in the preface, saying there are no simple formulas or magic solutions.

James McGregor, the author of One Billion Customers, is a journalist and a businessman. He has lived in Beijing for fifteen years as The Wall Street Journal’s China bureau chief, then as the chief executive of Dow Jones & co and the vice-president of Dow Jones International Group. He also served as an advisor to many Chinese Internet ventures and is a founding partner of BlackInc China, LLC. He has been and is an advisor to US and China governments. A former chairman and a decade-long governor of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, he now is the Senior China Advisor to Ogilvy Public Relations.

One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China is 336 pages in hardcover with ISBN-10: 0743258398 and ISBN-13: 978-0743258395.

We all need to know what happens inside the business machinery in China, even if we may not agree with the current practices. I recommend One Billion Customers to everyone, because all of us, starting with our elected officials, need an intelligent understanding of where we stand with China, and this book is an excellent source for that subject.

One Billion Customers by James McGregor