The first book by a westerner who built a company in China from scratch

The emergence of China as a world economic power is one of the biggest stories of our time. Every business that intends to be an important part of the fast-changing global economy needs to know how to play the game in China. Who better to be your guide than Jack Perkowski, the pioneer who went to China in the early 1990s. Equipped with just a concept, he built a company step-by-step from the ground up–ASIMCO Technologies–that became a major player in China’s fast-growing automotive business.

Perkowski’s story is as rich, involving, and improbable as those of nineteenth-century titans such as Rockefeller and Carnegie or of twentieth-century ones like Michael Dell and Bill Gates, but with one obvious difference: They and others built their companies when America was emerging or dominant. Perkowski built his at the dawn of the Chinese century.

Perkowski’s insights about the challenges and potential of western involvement in today’s great Chinese expansion–gained on the ground in China itself over the past fifteen years–are of inestimable value and relevance to us all. For instance:

• The good news about China: Everything is possible. The bad news: Nothing is easy.

• To build a business in China, you must develop a local management team–avoiding both former bureaucrats of the state-run enterprises and the country’s new breed of wildcat entrepreneurs.

• You must learn the real reason why China is able to produce goods so cheaply.

• Forget your notions about the Chinese economy being rigidly controlled by Beijing–it is, in fact, highly decentralized and locally driven. As the Chinese say, “The mountains are high and the emperor is far away.”

Perkowski tells his story with clarity, lots of humor, and a gripping sense of adventure. He takes us along on his own version of the Long March, when he visited two factories a day for nine months, hitting every province, going through endless rounds of dinners and the inevitable drinking games, and eating what seemed like every part of every animal. He vividly describes what it’s like to be a westerner living and working in China and the dramatic transformation he’s seen in the country, from a place left behind by the modern world to a place where a new world is being born.

Filled with hard-nosed lessons for anyone with ambitions of breaking into the Chinese market, and a rich source of practical wisdom about the realities of China today, Managing the Dragon answers the questions people ask Perkowski most often about his unique experience, as well as those they never think of asking–but should.

傑剋•潘考夫斯基(Jack Perkowski)這位來自匹茲堡的工人階級子弟。他拿著橄欖球奬學金上瞭耶魯大學(Yale)，在華爾街工作瞭20年，最終成為普惠公司(Paine Webber)的投行業務負責人。他完全可以吃老本，享受自己的個人財富。

但他沒有。上世紀90年代，他來到一個環境艱難的國度，在一個完全陌生的棘手行業裏開始創業。本書講述瞭潘考夫斯基到中國建立瞭一傢中國汽車配件集團的故事。這傢企業原名亞洲戰略投資集團(Asian Strategic Investments Corporation)，現已更名為亞新科工業技術公司(Asimco Technologies)。

《和巨龍打交道》 (Managing the Dragon)不是一部偉大的文學作品。四年前齣版的《中國先生》(Mr China)講述瞭一些同樣的場景，但卻更具文采，更為幽默。那本書的作者祈立天(Tim Clissold)是一名會說中文的會計師，協助潘考夫斯基創建瞭亞新科。但潘考夫斯基的作品仍然值得一讀，因為它不僅提供瞭在一些在中國做生意的真知灼見，而且還是一位永遠樂觀的美國企業傢的自畫像——在災難和失望麵前，他始終鍥而不捨。