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Getting China and India Right
A Smith alumna and a Smith professor have advice for
companies looking for a global edge.
 Anil Gupta, Ralph J. Tyser Professor of Strategy and Organization, spent a
lot of time last spring traveling to promote his new book, Getting China and
India Right: Strategies for Leveraging the World’s Fastest-Growing Companies for
Global Advantage. So did his co-author and wife, Haiyan Wang, MBA ’95—which took
them away from their other joint venture, their 7-year old twin daughters, more
often than they’d like.
The book is their second together, following the highly-regarded The Quest
for Global Dominance, now in its second edition (and whose Chinese language
edition was released recently in mid-May). Writing this book was a no-brainer
for the couple. “While there are country books about China and India and
operational books about the tactics of doing business in China or India, there
wasn’t a single book that addressed both economies from the lens of corporate
strategy,” says Wang.
“We were well positioned to write this book because we bring insider
perspectives and insights regarding both India, where I was born, and China,
where Haiyan was born,” says Gupta. “At the same time, we know how western
businesses work, having lived in the U.S. for 20 years and consulted for many
multinational companies.”
 If hanging wallpaper together can strain a relationship, writing a book
together must be a real struggle. “Well, it’s 70 percent joy, 30 percent pain,”
laughs Wang. “We are much more open to criticism, and we criticize each other
without reservation or politeness. A discussion can go on from breakfast to
dinnertime! We are constantly exchanging ideas, and we know each other’s
strengths and flaws.”
“I bring research depth,” says Gupta. “Haiyan brings practical business
experience.”
“I think about how we can make the message more readable and easy to digest,”
says Wang. “Are we providing answers that address business questions?”
Yes, say readers and reviewers both in the U.S. and abroad. The book explores
the commonalities between India and China in order to help business leaders
understand the unique challenges that accompany any venture into these diverse
and ancient cultures that are also the world’s two fastest-growing major
economies.
“India and China are different from the west on multiple dimensions—culture,
language, political system,” says Gupta. “They are rich and poor at the same
time. China has the 3rd largest economy in the world, and India the 10th, yet
per capita income in China is one-fifteenth of the U.S. and in India about
one-thirty-fifth of the U.S.”
Most companies’ global strategies fall short in India and China because they
have a legacy mindset, say Wang and Gupta. They persist in seeing the two
countries solely through the lens of off-shoring and cost-reduction, but forget
that they are vast markets in their own right, with a rapidly-growing middle
class. By 2025, China’s economy will very likely overtake that of the U.S.;
India will be about to overtake Japan to become 3rd largest economy in the
world. So there are significant opportunities for companies that can develop
winning strategies for China and India.
“We live in an increasingly multi-polar world,” says Wang. “The U.S. is no
longer the sole growth engine for the world economy. Companies must evolve to
have a multi-polar structure as well. As they evolve into truly global
enterprises, national identity will become less and less important. By 2020, we
expect a high degree of convergence across the leading global enterprises in
most industries, even though specific companies may have their origins in the
U.S., Europe, Japan, China, or India.”
Anil Gupta, Ralph J. Tyser Professor of Strategy and Organization, is widely
recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on strategy and globalization.
Haiyan Wang, MBA ’95, is managing partner of China India Institute, a research
and consulting organization. They are the co-authors of Getting China and India
Right: Strategies for Leveraging the World’s Fastest-Growing Economies for
Global Advantage (Jossey/Bass-Wiley, 2009).
Get in Touch! Contact information for Haiyan Wang, MBA ’95, is available
through the eAlumni Network.
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