The Long Game: Managing Foreign Ventures in China

The question of whether management in China is different from management in the West continues to preoccupy academics and business people alike. Is China really ‘singular and different’, they ask, or can Western management techniques be applied just as they would at home? Obviously, if the latter were true, life would be a lot easier. Strategies, organizations and advertising campaigns, often developed globally and at colossal expense, could be rolled out in China with a minimum of additional cost. Adaptation to a new market takes time and costs money. Plenty of people are prepared to convince themselves that what works in Boston will work in Beijing. After all, they argue, basic human motivation is the same everywhere. People go to work because they want to make money, to better themselves, to buy new cars and consumer goods, to send their children to school and so on.