Strategies for Asia Pacific: Beyond the Crisis

Rating:
Summary: Viewed from travelling to Asia-not much of an update!
Review: A fair view on Asian markets and management from the perspective of frequent travel to Asia, but without actual managing experiences. For the novice to the region it sketches out the fundamentals. However, the book has a tendency to portray the characteristics of an early entrepreneurial Asia and past experiences of early market penetration by Western companies as an actual situation, but which is outlived in the meantime. The authors don't deliver much of an update, and fail to deliver a thorough overhaul of their views from the first edition. They don't cover much of what has changed in Asia actually. They still need to postulate fundamental differences in Asian business to build on a myth, where others have already a much more differentiated view. Philip Kotler's new 'Marketing management - an Asian perspective' has a much better grasp of reality in Asian business management, although covering only marketing. While giving helpful insights for managers new to Asia, this book by Lasserre/Schutte doesn't reflect the actual trends and changes in Asian business management triggered by the crisis! The chapter'Managing human resources'builds on outdated(1994)considerations, that don't reflect the actual drive for performance-based HR management for higher productivity. Other chapters 'Asian business logic, Cooperating.., Organising' do also not reflect too much of the modern business realities in Asia in favor of keeping a more 'mythical' view of what was a perceived reality in the early days of contacts with Asian markets and business.

Rating:
Summary: Old wine in new bottle
Review: I did not see much difference between this and the previous edition written several years previously and before the crisis. Over this book, I strongly recommend Haley, Tan and Haley's "New Asian Emperors: the Overseas Chinese, their Strategies and Competitive Advantages" as an expert account of how to do business in Asia.

Rating:
Summary: Good book for its time
Review: Overall I think this is a good book, especially for giving one an overview behind the growth of Asia prior to the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997. I've spent a lot of time in the region both before, during and after the crisis, interacting with the region's business and government leaders. It's a daunting task for anyone to talk, let alone write a book, about such a dynamic and ever changing region. This book has done the job well.