Dragons at Your Door ─ How Chinese Cost Innovation Is Disrupting Global Competition

• Urgently needed resource: Companies in Europe and the Americas have not faced such an overwhelming threat to their domestic markets since the Japanese arrived with their cars and consumer electronics. Now, Chinese multinationals are advancing rapidly into high-end products and industries and competing for high-value activities such as engineering, design, and R&D not just basic manufacturing. These firms are putting new pressure on margins across a wide range of industries. They're positioning themselves to not only attack today's mass markets but also break down barriers that historically protected highly profitable, niche businesses. This book shows how to fend off these fierce competitors.
• A robust framework: The first to examine this new competitiveforce, this book provides a robust theoretical framework for analyzing the issues raised by the emergence of these "cost innovating" Chinese multinationals.
• Detailed case analyses: The authors build on detailed case analyses of leading Chinese companies such as Lenovo, Haier, Huawei, TCL, Wahaha, China International Marine Containers, Galanz, and BYD Battery.
• Potent competitive weapon: Through systematic collection of recent data and rigorous analysis at the company level, Williamson and Zeng expose the strategies, strengths, and weaknesses of these fast-rising Chinese companies. They also surface the underlying logic that enables Chinese firms to attack high-end industries so quickly. This information equips Western managers with a new competitive mindset and insight into these very different rivals. Practical advice shows Western business leaders how to win the next global competitive battle where Chinese companies are disruptive players. Readers learn why the Chinese dragons are successful, where they're going to attack next, and how to meet the challenges they're posing.
• Expert authors: Peter William is professor of international management and Asian business at INSEAD. He has consulted on business strategy, restructuring, and international expansion to numerous companies throughout the Asia-Pacific region as well as in Europe and North America. Ming Zeng is professor of strategy at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in China. He was a faculty member at INSEAD from 1998 to 2002. He has conducted extensive research on growth strategies of Chinese companies, competition and cooperation between Chinese and multinational firms, and the ways in which the emergence of successful Chinese companies is changing global competition.

The new competitive challenge from Chinese businesses is like nothing seen by Western companies since the Japanese arrived twenty years ago with their cars and consumer electronics. To fend off these fierce competitors, managers must forget yesterday's image of Chinese companies as producers of cheap, low-quality imitations flooding world markets. In fact, by strategically implementing what the authors call cost innovation, Chinese firms are advancing into high-end products and industries and competing for such high-value activities as engineering, design, and even R&D.

The first book to examine this new competitive force, "Dragons at Your Door" exposes the strategies, strengths, and weaknesses of these fast-rising Chinese competitors, surfaces the underlying logic that enables Chinese firms to attack high-end industries, and provides critical new insight into these very different competitors.