Like Tom Cruise in Top Gun, American companies often feel “the need for speed.” In a business world where Internet time has become the norm, the watchword is: get the deal done.

The race to close new ventures over seas doesn’t always leave room for effective due diligence. After all, the theory goes, we do these kinds of deals every day. But U.S. businesses…

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My mandate at PPI was to develop a self-empowered Chinese management team and staff to run the day-to-day operations while the owner of the company was in Hollywood directing and producing two feature-length movies.

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In his time Sun Tzu was a general of the Emperor of China. One day he suggested to the Emperor to make an army of women. He asked the Emperor for a thousand of his women. The Emperor, a bit hesitant, gave them to him.

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1.3 billion customers. This is the magic number that captures the imagination of every company in the world with something to sell in China. Many would be tempted to think that even if they grab as little as 1 percent of the market share, they still have 10 million customers. Well, that’s a simple mathematical calculation and it remains just that.

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China is, for many people, alien and difficult. The language, the culture, the distance all make it seem very strange. Many people have also heard tell that the country is an extremely difficult place in which to do business. They (mistakenly) think that it is Communist.

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