Managing The Dragon

Geely’s acquisition of Volvo is a watershed event for both the global auto industry and the international mergers and acquisitions business. The acquisition of a global auto brand by a relative industry newcomer from China demonstrates how quickly even major industries like automobiles are being transformed by the development of China’s economy. It also may [...]

The global economy is much more stable today than it was at this time last year, but that doesn’t make 2010 any easier to predict. In January 2009, the debate was all about numbers. Would China’s economy grow by 8 percent as the government was predicting, 7.2 percent as the World Bank concluded, or considerably [...]

Events continue to unfold in China’s rapidly changing automotive industry. The Financial Times summarized the most important of the recent developments: Beijing Automotive Industry Corp. wheeling its shopping cart around the world in search of distressed car assets like Sweden’s SAAB; Geely negotiating to acquire Volvo; and last but not least, General Motors selling majority [...]

It’s hard to believe that just over 10 years ago Geely was producing $100 motorcycles for China’s local market for transportation. When Li Shufu, the company’s visionary founder and chairman, announced in 1997 that he wanted to enter China’s fast-growing passenger car business, everyone in the world, including nearly everyone in China, thought it was [...]

Ten years ago, no one would have even considered buying shares in China Heavy Duty Truck. The company was losing money, making small volumes of low technology trucks with know-how from the 1950’s for a China heavy-duty market that had not quite yet developed. Based in Jinan in Shandong Province, China Heavy Duty Truck was [...]

When the economic history of China is written, it will show that, to date, there have been three major inflection points in the country’s economic development — events that have triggered major changes in the direction of the country. First, of course, was the opening of China to the outside world under Deng Xiaoping in [...]

One of our good friends from the Chinese media was gathering background information for a story she was writing on the auto industry and came over to speak with me. We sat down and discussed a wide range of issues that dealt not only with China, but also with global trends. Apart from any insight [...]