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Small Business & Entrepreneurship |
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Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures--and Yours
written by Tarun Khanna
Studio : Harvard Business School Press
by Harvard Business School Press
Publisher : Harvard Business School Press
Released : 2008-01-21
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9781422103838
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 16 reviews)
List Price : $29.95
Our Price : $16.86
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Product Description |
Called well worth reading by The Economist and earnest and entertaining by the Financial Times, Tarun Khanna s Billions of Entrepreneurs is an elegantly written book that mixes on-the-ground stories with thorough research to show how Chinese and Indian entrepreneurs are creating change through new business models and bringing hope to countless people across the globe. Khanna juxtaposes, on a variety of levels, China and India; explores how the future depends on understanding the yin and yang of these two nations; and emphasizes the increasingly important links between China, India, and the West. Khanna embraces what he calls a big tent view of entrepreneurship going beyond typical stories of high profile, young executives taking companies public and focusing on social and political entrepreneurs who are redefining the norms of daily activity.
In the book, Khanna sets out to demystify many of the questions that confound foreigners (BusinessWeek), exploring subjects that include each nation s treatment of multinationals, Chinese and Indian managerial talent, and state vs. grassroots approaches to business and entrepreneurship. Khanna s insightful analysis draws on history, economics, and political science, and is humanized by vivid portraits of the lives of individual entrepreneurs, politicians, and activists whom the author has met during his regular visits to each country. He argues that hope for prosperity in both countries lies in the hands of the billions of entrepreneurs who are alleviating social problems and historic tensions, benefiting both countries and the world at large.
According to the Financial Times: What Khanna does do, and does well, is cover vast sociopolitical and economic ground, and provide meaty information derived from conversations with people who have done business in India and China. |
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highly recommend |
Before starting the book, I was suspicious of an Indian man (albeit a scholar) writing about India and China. Many authors tend to be overly negative or unrealistically positive about their native countries, especially when comparing to other countries... It was impressive how Khanna acknowledged certain bias tendencies and while reading the book I came to respect his unwavering commitment to objectivity. I thought he always gave both countries a fair and critical look, admiring and questioning when appropriate regardless if it was India or China.
As an entrepreneur myself, it was fascinating to get a glimpse into the human stories and anecdotal evidence of the statistics that are abound in major news stories. Those exact personal encounters are what made this a page-turner for me...I felt like I got a chance to meet people I wouldn't have met otherwise.
Finally, I loved the overall optimism that Khanna has for China, India and the world. In today's atmosphere of doom and gloom it's remarkable to see an academic looking forward with excitement. I appreciated the thorough observations, intelligent and substantiated analysis in the book; I am waiting for a sequel about Russia and Brazil!
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A Broad Overview of India and China |
I was assigned to read this book for a MBA class on international competitive strategy. I found this book to be much more interesting to read than a "traditional" textbook, while retaining its academic roots. By the time I finished the book, my understanding of India and China's culture as well as each country's influence on the global economy was much richer than before.
One example:
A chapter in the book is dedicated to discussing India's and China's use of soft power and hard power. Soft power is defined as "the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments." The book is very successful in illustrating how India has mastered soft power by spreading its culture internationally through various channels (for example, Bollywood movies). Conversely, China has become very successful at using its economic and military resources to create desired results. Burma/Myanmar is used as an example due to the fact that this country has felt both India's soft power and China's hard power.
While this book is not inclusive of all apsects of China's and India's international influence, it's a great start. I'd recommend this book to anyone curious about India and China. It's a wide-ranging overview of each country's government and culture, which will be a great asset to anyone given the growing international influence of each country. If you're attending the Beijing Olympics, it'd be a perfect read on the flight to and from China.
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Disappointing |
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I had the misfortune to be assigned this book as a textbook for a class on global competitive strategy. I was very excited about exploring international perspectives in business, however this book proved useless. Stylistically, the prose is pretentious and verbose, making it difficult to read. It seems as though the author was more interested in showing off his extensive vocabulary than in coherently expressing his point. Also, the author relies heavily on name-dropping and anecdotal evidence to give credibility to his theories. If there is one thing I have learned in my extensive travels, it's that one person's experience does not translate into an immutable or universal truth. In short, this book turned into a very time-consuming and frustrating read with few useful lessons. |
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Solid Introduction to China and India for Those Who Want to Do Business There |
Professor Tarun Khanna describes and explains the social histories, lay cultures, religions, politics, infrastructures, resources, regional differences, and business successes and flops in China and India using personal observations, anecdotes, case histories, and statistics to help readers understand opportunities in Asia to access resources and enter markets there. His style makes the book appealing and interesting as he highlights the contrasts.
Rather than make a case for mirror images, Professor Khanna argues that good businesses will gain benefits from both countries by coordinating resources and market positions. His main example is a chapter explaining what General Electric has done in both countries.
I thought the best part of the book was arguing that natives of each country develop solutions for how to create more successful businesses. That's a point that few multinational companies are going to consider seriously enough.
I always enjoy reading about examples of superior business models, and this book is relatively rich in describing businesses that contain interesting twists on traditional ways of operating. I also didn't know the history of how many of the major new businesses in India got their start.
I hope that Professor Khanna will follow up this book with a narrower focus on the opportunities for small company entrepreneurs in both countries. I think he would do a fine job and the information would be valuable to a much larger audience than this book will probably command. |
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Illuminating survey |
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This is a curious book, not really about entrepreneurship but rather about a broad range of cultural, social, historical and economic subjects involving and contrasting China and India, from 1.5 billion village dwellers to urbanites in Beijing and Mumbai. Tarun Khanna's text is part travelogue, part reflection, part history and part speculation about the future. Anyone who has read to any depth about China and India will not find all that much that is surprising here. However, getAbstract recommends this book with enthusiasm because of its nearly unique richness of anecdotes, variety of perspectives, color and range. |
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