As usual we end our S3 Newsletter with some articles not so closely related to the business world.
On this occasion, after finishing the list of the ten most beautiful national parks in China in the previous edition, we will also finish the list of twenty great and yet little-known cities, putting the spotlight on a place especially linked to the West.
We will also include a unique, quite exceptional list related to business books (“erring” a bit, because this section should not be related to business).
Large yet little-known Chinese cities
After Wuhan (central), Shenyang (northeast), Guiyang (southwest), Shaoxing (east), Chengdu (west), Fuzhou (southeast), Hainan Island (south), Xi’an (northwest), Nanjing (east), Kunming (southwest), Harbin (northeast), Lhasa (southwest), Changsha (centre-south), Suzhou (east), Macau (south), Hohhot (northwest), Chongqing (west), Zhengzhou (centre-east) and Wuxi (east) on the map, we stay in the east of the country, where we find the city of traders par excellence: Wenzhou.
The city of Wenzhou is not a provincial capital, but it is still worthy of being on this list. In fact, it is the last on the list of twenty cities, because its connection with the West is remarkable.
It is a major commercial port and industrial centre in Zhejiang Province, a real economic engine in the east of the country, known for its capital Hangzhou (home of Alibaba), Shaoxing (our fourth city on the list) and Ningbo (the largest deep-water port in China, close to China’s financial capital, Shanghai).
But the city is also known as a place of origin for many emigrants who have settled in Europe and the United States, where they are recognised for their ability to prosper in remote places, partly because of their business skills and partly because of their personal ties.
More than half of the 1.7 million registered Chinese immigrants in Europe come from Wenzhou.
Perhaps it helps that their local language is not Mandarin, but a variety of Wu Chinese, almost a ‘fossil of ancient Chinese’.
The five books recommended by S3 for CEOs
Recently, the marketing team of OBS Business School, with which we have an important academic partnership, asked us to select the Top 5 must-have books for managers, directors and CEOs of corporations, as part of a collaboration with the well-known news agency Bloomberg Latam.
And we came up with a list that we thought was worth sharing in the S3 Newsletter!
‘The five dysfunctions of a team’, Patrick Lencioni.
The CEO may be the leader of the company, but without exercising leadership over and with his team, building trust and, consequently, creating cohesion, fostering innovation, etc., he will be a purely theoretical leader, not a real one.
And he will not achieve the company’s objectives.
He is nothing without his team.
Required reading.
‘The Founder’s Mentality. How to overcome the predictable crises of growth’, Chris Zook.
A not very recent book, but key to remind the CEO that he or she must never lose sight of the mindset of the entrepreneur, the founder of the company, who is constantly beset by crises that threaten the survival of his or her company, whether financial, operational or technological.
The business equivalent of the famous ‘stay young, stay innocent’.
‘From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life’, Arthur C. Brooks.
It’s not all about starting, struggling to grow, surviving. This book looks at how the CEO, as he or she matures in his or her career, finds more happiness and meaning in what he or she does in his or her role as the top manager of the company.
Undoubtedly, it is a very complementary book to the previous one; indeed, one cannot go without the other.
‘Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy’, Henry Kissinger.
The recently deceased ‘guru of diplomats’, never without controversy, Henry Kissinger, left us in 2023 a publication with ample material for the CEO to distil his or her own leadership style, to create his or her own way of being successful in managing his or her company, i.e., his or her very own project.
‘Ecommerce Reimagined: Retail and Ecommerce in China’, Sharon Gai.
Although this is a fairly technical and industry-specific book, it is unthinkable for us to end the list without a publication that focuses on the market where the future is happening: China.
Yes, the Chinese economy is not doing very well at the moment, but its companies continue to break new ground, whether in e-commerce, electric cars or in other fields where the West finds it difficult to keep up with this vertiginous development.
And that is why this book is an example of why no CEO in Latin America (or the rest of the world) can afford to lose sight of what is happening in China.