Book Review - Billions: Selling to the New Chinese Consumer
I'm not a marketing 'guy', but I do have a strong interest in how the Chinese people think. If you are in business today or plan to be in the new future, you should be interested too. If you don't know why you should be, let me know and I'll share some insight.
The book was recommended to my by my friend Shannon Brown, the Senior Vice President of Equity Marketing's Burger King Account Services. It's Shannon's business to understand how people think, and she spoke highly of this book when I mentioned how one of my core tasks is to understand the Chinese mind.
Billions, by Tom Doctoroff, is a two part book. The first part deals with how the Chinese think (Chinese Culture & Buyer Motivations), while the second part focuses on marketing strategies. The first part was for me, the second part...not so much. Therefore my review is based chiefly on part one.
Tom gives excellent insight into how the Chinese think, and bases his claims on not only his own eight years of experience in marketing to the Chinese, but on an understanding of Chinese history. Five thousand (plus) years of indoctrination by emperors has created a nation focused on collectivism, while Confucianism dogma has molded them into walking, breathing contradictions. Tom's exploration of each of the major personality traits of the Chinese (as motivators) is fantastic yet easy to understand. The way he ties their motivations to their history is logical and believable. Those who have not yet had contact with the Chinese (or are just beginning to join the rest of us in this activity) would benefit greatly from the first part of this book. Tom exposes the plain truth that I and many other expatriates in China have been saying for years: Chinese do not think like Westerners, and probably never will.
I enjoyed the read and learned a few things along the way that may help me be a better leader, both in China and in the West. I recommend the book for anyone who expects to deal with or is dealing with the Chinese (and if you in business, you will). However, due to the nature of the second chapter which I didn't find very useful due to my particular discipline, I'm only going to give it 1.5 coffee cups. I liked the book, but the second part might have been better if it had been a separate book altogether.
