About the Event
Lele Sang, Wharton Global Fellow, discussed the intricacies of corporate success and failure in China with firsthand insights from her book, Winning in China: 8 Stories of Success and Failure in the World's Largest Economy. She explored critical factors influencing multinational corporations like Amazon, LinkedIn, and Sequoia Capital, and shared invaluable strategies to navigate the challenges and opportunities within China's dynamic market landscape.
About the Book
If Amazon can't win in China, can anyone?
When Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos visited China in 2007, he expected that one day soon China would be a double-digit percentage of Amazon's sales. Yet, by 2019, Amazon, the most powerful and successful e-commerce company in the world, had quit China.
In Winning in China: 8 Stories of Success and Failure in the World's Largest Economy, Wharton Global Fellow Lele Sang and Vice Dean Karl Ulrich explore the success and failure of several well-known companies, including Amazon, LinkedIn, Hyundai, Sequoia Capital, Zegna, and InMobi, as more and more businesses look to reap profits from the demand of 1.4 billion people.
Through over 100 in-depth interviews with executives at multinational corporations, they answer four critical questions:
·Which factors explain the success (or failure) of foreign companies entering China?
What challenges and pitfalls can a company entering China expect to encounter?
How can a prospective entrant realistically assess its chances?
Which managerial decisions are critical, and which approaches are most effective?
About Lele Sang
Lele Sang is a Global Fellow at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the coauthor of Winning in China: 8 Stories of Success and Failure in the World's Largest Economy (Wharton School Press, 2021). She is also a contributor to Harvard Business Review and writes about international business. A formal journalist and editor, She has interviewed world leaders from prime ministers to Fortune 500 company CEOs. In addition to journalism, she had stints at startups and multinational corporations as a marketer in both the United States and China.
Lele was a visiting scholar at the University of California – Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism. She holds an MPA degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She has garnered recognition for her expertise in international business, having made appearances on CNBC, Harvard Business Review, Knowledge at Wharton, and other platforms.
About the Nardone Family Seminar Series
Made possible by a gift from David R. Nardone, this seminar series brings scholars and practitioners to Northeastern University to share insights on emerging markets.