Asia

The widely held notion of “Japan, Inc.” is exaggerated; there is no monolithic business-government link. Even so, the cooperation (without incorporation) between the large corporate combines and the government bureaucracy is impressive in its strength and focus on the common economic good—especially in view of its achievements worldwide. As the economic power of the United […]

Editor's note: This blog was written with Madhu Viswanathan, Professor of Business Administration at University of Illinois at Champaign, Illinois. The...

The world is watching how China handles company defaults.

In many countries, diversified business groups substitute for the institutions that support effective markets in capital, labor, and goods and services. Their capacity for doing this must be strengthened through restructuring, not destroyed through dismantling.

Recently I delivered a talk a the Council on Foreign Relations titled “Managing the New Trajectory of Global Innovation” explaining why and how multinationals must revamp their Western-centric innovation strategy in order to effectively leverage global ideas, talent, and markets. In our increasingly multi-polar world characterized by the inexorable rise of emerging markets like Brazil, […]

Last week the United States held a hotly contested election that demonstrated the challenges and strengths of the American political system. Both major parties talked of all that was wrong in American politics: a future of deficits, the monetization of political life, and the prospect of endless political gridlock. Yet at the end of the […]

We recently attended the launch of Xerox’s Innovation Hub in Chennai (a major South Indian city), their first such venture outside the developed world. The initial mission of the Xerox India Innovation Hub is to develop document management solutions that are relevant to emerging market countries and, at the same time, that help innovate solutions […]

Anti-American sentiment poses a challenge to companies seeking to export to some regions of the world, most notably parts of Asia and the Middle East. At the same time, segments within those regions keenly identify with U.S. urban youth culture—the world of hip-hop and rap. Research I conducted among Chinese undergraduates suggests that this identification […]

In fast-growing markets, women are getting ahead faster, too.

It’s time to stop treating the situation as a short-term crisis.

In the course of the last three days I have spent at the 2009 India Economic Summit organized by the World Economic Forum (WEF), I have heard speeches from many politicians and policy-makers — from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma to Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning […]

In most companies, strategic planning isn’t about making decisions. It’s about documenting choices that have already been made, often haphazardly. Leading firms are rethinking their approach to strategy development so they can make more, better, and faster decisions.

Between 1945 and 1990, Japan went from rags to riches, entering the ranks of the world’s wealthiest countries and posing a direct challenge to U.S. competitiveness. Today, China seems to be replicating Japan’s economic miracle — with a population 10 times as large. Like Japan, China combines statist industrial policies with export-oriented development. And like […]

The other day, I bought two pounds of navel oranges for 99 cents a pound at my local market in Santa Monica, Ca. As I walked toward the checkout line, I noticed the oranges were stamped with Chinese characters. For a second, I felt proud, thinking oranges from local growers were destined for Asia, where […]

Japan today sits on the largest cache of wealth ever assembled. It has the power to move markets anywhere in the world. Consider that. The Tokyo Stock Exchange has now surpassed New York to become the world’s largest on the basis of market capitalization. Osaka has bumped London to fourth place. Of the world’s ten […]

The “bounded awareness” phenomenon causes people to ignore critical information when making decisions. Learning to expand the limits of your awareness before you make an important choice will save you from asking “How did I miss that?” after the fact.

Someone in India recently asked me what I thought about an innovation strategy featuring a heavy dose of “imitation.” My response was, “Innovation isn’t Olympic diving.” What did I mean? An individual diver’s scores for an event are a factor of two things: how well they execute their dive, and the “degree of difficulty” of […]

Taking on these duties can have a significant negative impact on employees' energy levels and job satisfaction.

Setting up shop in a new country always comes with surprises. Things are never quite the way the due diligence report claimed. So, success doesn’t always come to the those with the best plans, but to the ones able to understand and respond to surprises. Few countries offer as many surprises as China. It delivers […]

A global survey reveals a leadership gap between high-growth markets and established markets.