Author @bbuderi

How do you know if someone you just met is worth doing business with? How do you know if they’re trustworthy? You can sign all the agreements in the world, but if you don’t have trust, you don’t have a business. And you don’t have a relationship.

In the late 90′s Bill Gates first set foot in China. He was to meet the Chinese President Jiang Zemin. In Blue Jeans. Microsoft, clearly, had a long way to go towards understanding China. Many have tread here before, but Bill has deep pockets and up for a challenge.I’m reminded of an old anecdote about Bill Gates where an MS Exec recounts Gates bemoaning the ageing process:

Gates: I wish I could live forever, but as I get older, I can feel myself getting a bit slower upstairs, not quite a sharp or quick-witted as I once was. I hate it. I’ve always prided myself on being so smart, and I can feel it slipping away.
MS Exec: Well, you’re human Bill. Everyone gets older. What are you gonna do about it?
Gates: I figure if I just surround myself with lots of super smart people, I can overcome my own old age. And I can buy that.

And with that bid for immortality in mind, Gates first came to Beijing looking to set up a Microsoft Research facility. With thousands of brilliant Computer Engineers graduating from Chinese schools every year, Gates would surround himself with the smartest minds in China. In turn they would produce some of the most groundbreaking technology Microsoft had ever seen. For computer geeks this was the ultimate job: basically try to do new stuff, and Bill Gates is paying for it. What’s more: when you make products for Microsoft, you end up reaching millions and millions of people.

What started off as an incredibly awkward jeans and polo shirt meeting with the Chinese Presiden, led to countless dinners, banquets all over China. Microsoft would have to win the favour of the Chinese government, something they were not used to doing–not with anybody ( famously, Bill Gates had received countless invites from the likes of Bill Clinton in the past, and turned them down because he didn’t have free time).
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This one was reccomended to me by a fellow expat colleague back in 2008; finally got around to it, and it’s a real gem. Before I go on about how the difference between East and West can cause problems, confusion, misunderstanding, (as well as wonder, fascination and reflection) I’ll come right out and say it now:is a cliché. I know. But it is critical to understanding why certain things happen.

Put it this way, were it not for ‘misunderstandings’ Tim Clissold would be at the helm of a massive empire in China right now, and this book wouldn’t exist. Everything they’d dreamed of and planned bumped up against this pervasive, ancient, unshakeable culture. This book is about their attempt to go ahead with their plans and how it all turns out.

This story is about a foreigner, who, like hundreds of thousands who followed him, had a fascination for the exotic, mysterious, richness of Chinese culture, and did everything he could to get ‘over there.’

What usually starts off as flirting (traveling around for a week or two, hitting the Great Wall, picking up a book on learning/writing Chinese) turns to full on dating (move to China, get a cool job) and aspirations for a shared future (confidence in culturally and linguistically maneuvering throughout the cities and countysides, with the intent to settle down for good).

Our hero, Tim Clissold, is relentless in his desire to get into China and do something huge. He explains how he got a few lucky breaks, but did what it took to get money ( and lots of it) into China long before anyone on CNN was talking about it. He got in early, which meant, as a trailblazer, he had to be the real liason between East and West. We get firsthand insights on the big bosses in the developing Chinese economy. Just fascinating stuff.

The book turns into a series of Anecdotes about ways in which he dealt with ‘the Chinese mind’ by way of a handful of clever, tough, and sneaky Factory Managers, as well as navigating the Chinese political structure to not get fleeced in the Middle Kingdom.

I’ll admit, the symbolism on the front cover (with a classic Chinese dragon ‘biting’ a mans head) is a little ominous. “Did he lose his shirt?” “Did he turn to bribes/backdoor deals?” It turns out that neither of these were really true. But his team of investors didn’t ‘take over’ China at all. Not by a long shot.

What you will absolutely adore about this book, besides Tim’s astute insight into not only the language and culture “challenges” but his ‘case studies’ are priceless. Somewhat unbelievable, almost always hilarious, he goes down the list of amazing stories of his mixed bag of Chinese investments. In many cases, the way his Chinese partners attempted to ‘get the best of him’ was very clever, and the followup is even better.

Come to think of it, the Dragon symbolism is befitting: by the end of it, the dragon doesn’t bite his head clean off, it just takes a chunk out of his ego. I think they call that wisdom.