'Navigating paradigm changes is a critical element of business
leadership: analog to digital; brand to retailer to consumer; reason to
emotion; West to East. Anything that illuminates these powershifts is
valuable for the fast-moving decision-maker, and in this respect Asian
versus Western Management Thinking is a first-rate inquiry into cultural
business behaviors. Insular frameworks of thinking and action matter
less by the second. I'm an And/And practitioner and my experience of
bridging business between East and West, and vice versa, suggests we
need to know the human distinctions that matter and the harmonies that
will matter even more. Between the covers of this book by Kimio Kase and
colleagues, business moves forward.' Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide,
Saatchi & Saatchi, Lovemarks Company 'Having lived and worked my entire
life in various countries around the world, I agree with the authors'
premise that Asians and Westerners often approach business problems from
different angles. Rather than focusing on differences, I welcome the
strength that comes from diversity. As my experience at Renault and
Nissan has demonstrated, the richest solutions come when ideas are
challenged or questioned by people who have a different perspective.
This book illustrates the value of accepting diverging ideas as a fact
of life that can be used to enhance the world in which we all live and
work.' Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
Renault-Nissan Alliance 'A most welcome addition to the unbalanced
management literature about the 'analytical' West and the 'synthetic'
East. For too long the field has been dominated by comparisons of
cultural value systems which paradoxically tell us precious little about
how habits of mind influence management thinking and practice in
different parts of the world over time. At a time when the world's
economic centre of gravity is visibly shifting to Asia, this really is a
most timely book.' Nigel Holden, Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre
for International Business at the University of Leeds, UK
