The Asian Insider Unconventional Wisdom for Asian Business

by Backman, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780230000216
• ISBN10: 0230000215
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-09-03
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Unconventional wisdom is essential for business success in Asia. Asia is like nowhere else. Personalities count for a lot. So do culture and ethnicity. In The Asian Insider, bestselling author Michiael Backman takes the reader on a fascinating journey into Asia's business world, encompassing: the breakneck development of Shanghai and Beijing, the messiness of Mumbai, Southeast Asia, where Islam is emerging as a commercial as well as a political force, Japan, with its lackluster economy that is literally dying, Malaysia, with its extraordinary mix of race, politics, and business, Singapore, with all its paradoxes and ironies.

Author Biography

MICHAEL BACKMAN is an author, business analyst and columnist who specializes in Asia and Asian corporate practice. He is the author of the international bestseller, Asian Eclipse: Exposing the Dark Side of Business in Asia, which was named by The Economist as one of the sixteen finest general non-fiction books of the year. He is the co-author of Big in Asia: 25 Strategies for Business Success. He writes several regular newspaper columns on Asian business, has authored numerous articles for The Times of London, International Herald Tribune, Asian Wall Street Journal and the Far Eastern Economic Review. He has lived and worked in Asia and travels widely and regularly throughout the region.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Facts	xi
1 The Asian Insider: An Introduction
Part I How Asia Really Works	5	(22)
2 Asian Family Connections	7	(8)
3 Why Is Corporate Governance So Bad in Asia?	15	(12)
Part II Government, the Rule of Law and Democracy in Asia	27	(60)
4 Is Democracy Always Good?	29	(9)
5 Paying Peanuts: Politicians' Pay in Asia	38	(6)
6 Police Corruption and the Rule of Law in Thailand	44	(6)
7 Executions and Extrajudicial Killings	50	(8)
8 Government Statistics and Other Lies	58	(9)
9 Thaksin Berlusconi and Silvio Shinawatra	67	(10)
10 The End of Indonesia	77	(10)
Part III Singapore and Malaysia	87	(78)
11 Why Singapore Is Different: The Babas of Singapore	89	(7)
12 Reinventing Singapore?	96	(16)
13 Singapore Inc. or Singapore Sink?	112	(10)
14 Singapore's Thriving Sex Industry	122	(11)
15 Diversity and Decency in Malaysia	133	(14)
16 Rumors and Gossip in Malaysia	147	(5)
17 Meet Syed Mokhtar Albukhary	152	(13)
Part IV Islam, Business and Asia	165	(32)
18 Allahu Akbar! Islam in Asia	167	(13)
19 Where Do Asia's Muslims Fit In?	180	(5)
20 Southeast Asia's Arabs	185	(5)
21 Pax Islamica: Malaysia and the Middle East	190	(7)
Part V Japan, China, India and Korea: Asia's Monolith Economies	197	(108)
22 Land of the Setting Sun: The Inevitable Death of Japan	199	(6)
23 Law, Order and China	205	(11)
24 China as a Consumer Market	216	(13)
25 Shanghai: China's Financial Capital	229	(4)
26 And Then There is Beijing	233	(6)
27 The Dalai Lama Eats Meat	239	(11)
28 The Indian Way	250	(10)
29 The World's Biggest Democracy	260	(9)
30 Mumbai: India's Financial Capital	269	(5)
31 India's Great Software Revolution	274	(8)
32 India: Back Office to the World	282	(7)
33 Stunning Korea	289	(12)
34 The Insider	301	(4)
Notes	305	(13)
Bibliography	318	(4)
Index	322