One Billion Customers

It is well known that with 1.3 billion mouths to feed, China’s market is moving quickly toward surpassing North America and Europe combined. Companies from the U.S. and across the globe are flocking there to buy, sell, manufacture and create new products. But as former The Wall Street Journal China bureau chief turned successful corporate executive James McGregor explains, business in China is conducted with much subterfuge -- nothing is as it seems and nothing about business in China is easy.

Quickly becoming the bible for anybody doing business in China, One Billion Customers shows how to navigate the often treacherous waters of Chinese deal making. Brilliantly written by an author who has lived in China for nearly two decades, the book reveals indispensable, street-smart strategies, tactics, and lessons for succeeding in the world’s fastest growing consumer market. Foreign companies rightly fear that Chinese partners, customers or suppliers will steal their technology or trade secrets or simply pick their pockets. Testy relations between China’s Communist leaders and the U.S. and other democracies can trap foreign companies in a political crossfire. McGregor has seen or experienced it all, and now he shares his insights about how China really works.

One Billion Customers maximizes the expansive knowledge of a respected journalist, well-known businessman, and ultimate China insider, offering compelling narratives of personalities, business deals, and lessons learned—from Morgan Stanley’s creation of a joint-venture Chinese investment bank to the pleasure dome of a smuggler whose $6 billion operation demonstrates how corruption greases the wheels of Chinese commerce. With nearly one hundred strategies for conducting business in China, this unprecedented account combines practical lessons with the story of China’s remarkable rise to power.

James McGregor is everybody's go-to guy on China, providing strategic advice to top political leaders and Fortune 500 CEOs, serving as an insightful and influential China commentator for television, radio and print media across the globe, and guiding China investments, mergers & acquisitions and all manner of business deals for clients of JL McGregor & Company.

James McGregor is the founder, chairman and CEO of JL McGregor & Company LLC, a China-focused research and advisory firm. A Mandarin speaker, he is a journalist-turned-businessman who has lived in China for 20 years and the author of the book One Billion Customers: Lessons From the Front Lines of Doing Business in China, a widely-acclaimed best-seller published by Simon & Schuster.

Previously, McGregor ran the private consulting firm BlackInc China, which was the launching ground for JL McGregor & Company. He has long served as Senior China Advisor for Ogilvy Worldwide, and has also been senior China advisor for Spencer Stuart and a Senior Director of Stonebridge International LLC, an international strategic advisory firm headed by former U.S. National Security Advisor Sandy Berger. Before researching and writing the book, McGregor was a partner and the China managing director for GIV Venture Partners, a $140 million venture capital fund specializing in technology investments in China and India. McGregor was also a pioneer of the Chinese Internet, serving as an advisor to many Chinese Internet startups and as an early investor and board member of Sohu.com during the company's July 2000 NASDAQ listing.

McGregor's interest in Asia began at age 18 when he served as an infantry soldier in Vietnam. His China career started in 1985 when he backpacked through China and decided he wanted to learn Mandarin and focus on being a journalist in China. At the time, McGregor was a reporter on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. for Knight-Ridder Newspapers. From 1987 to 1993 McGregor served as The Wall Street Journal's Taiwan bureau chief and The Wall Street Journal's China bureau chief.

From 1993 to 2000, McGregor was chief executive of Dow Jones & Co. in China, and a vice-president in the Dow Jones International Group. At Dow Jones, McGregor built a portfolio of media businesses that employed some 150 Chinese professionals with offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. In 1996, McGregor was Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. He also served for a decade as a Governor of that organization. McGregor is currently a member of the National Committee on US-China Relations; a member of the International Council of the Asia Society; and he serves on a variety of China-related advisory boards.