Book Review
Business red book
By David Jewell

　James McGregor 's One Billion Customers is a great read. It is positive, funny, intriguing and insightful. It is a must read for any businessperson who conducts business in China or Kazakhstan or Italy or the United States of America.
　 One Billion Customers is about never going into a business meeting with anyone without knowing their background, their beliefs and their fears.
　 McGregor finishes each section of his book with a summary he titles "The Little Red Book of Business." These "Red" points are worth more than the cost of

*　China has lots of slogans but no leading ideology, other than to become rich and powerful by relentlessly pursuing international trade and commerce.
*　The Chinese always need to get concessions from you.
*　The Chinese try to play you as being "unfriendly" to China if you don't give them what they need. Don't be afraid to tell them that friendly business is based on a fair deal for all. Mutual respect and quality are extremely important. It is useful in negotiations to wrap your position in these principles.
*　Contracts are not a guarantee of any deal. It is the relationship built in negotiating the contract that will give your business some hope.
*　Frame your China strategy as a roadmap. This helps keep and show your Chinese counter parts the value of maintaining a long-term partnership.
*　China has a survival culture with a "zero-sum" mentality. For somebody to win, somebody has to lose. The concept of "win-win" is new and not widespread, and will have to be constantly reiterated to be successful.
*　Fatigue, food and drink are negotiating tools. If your Chinese counterpart wants to finalize a deal after a Mao-tai-soaked banquet, it is better to throw up on the contract than sign it.
*　If you don't trust your CFO like your mother, give your mother the job.
*　If your boss wants to do a quick deal in China, lose his or her visa.
*　Be tough. The Chinese respect it. Never "tremble and obey" if doing so will damage or destroy your business in China.
*　Frame your arguments to show how your business is good for China, not what is wrong with Chinese government. You can't make the system look bad.
*　The Chinese appear to the West to be a collective society. They eat together, travel together, and have fun together. But always simmering just below that collective veneer is a dog-eat-dog competitive spirit that makes the Chinese among the world's most individualistic and selfish people.
*　Chinese respond well to charismatic and visionary leaders who will take care of them and who can tell them what to do to be successful.
*　McGregor believes China is experiencing economic, social, psychological, spiritual, and ideological upheavals that must settle before China can soar as a world economic power. McGregor cites several problems that keep Chinese business from worldwide leadership.
*　Chinese believe that to work together you must be friends.
*　Right now students are taught to be led rather than to lead and solve problems as they arise. They are given formulas for success. They memorize solutions as they memorize math, history, and philosophy.
*　Chinese have a short attention spans for business opportunities. There are so many opportunities, according to McGregor that he believes the Chinese need Ritalin to stay focused. They are so consumed with getting rich fast that they don't stick with any business idea long enough to give it time to mature and work.
*　The boss is king. There is top down management. With everyone looking to the boss to tell them what to do.
*　Given their Mao upbringing they trust no one.
*　Wealth in China is dangerous and business tycoons have few legal assets because the state owns them.

　What I find interesting after conducting business around the world for 30 years is that these problems exist in business in every country in the world. Great companies are as rare as great leaders. Finding great leaders is not just a problem in China; it is a problem around the world.
　McGregor's book is great advice for negotiating in any business deal. Delete China or Chinese from any of the statements in his book and you will be a better negotiator in Chicago, Shanghai, or Frankfurt.