“I see a lot of US companies sending professional managers to China. They are making their boss in the US happy, but not the Chinese customer.”
Every tech giant needs a book, and this is the first book that seems to offer a reasonable picture of Alibaba. Unlike most tech-business-history books ([b:Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal|18656827|Hatching Twitter A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal|Nick Bilton|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1381332539s/18656827.jpg|25670400], [b:The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That is Connecting the World|7518289|The Facebook Effect The Inside Story of the Company That is Connecting the World|David Kirkpatrick|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1429970841s/7518289.jpg|9732949], [b:Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo!|22608584|Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo!|Nicholas Carlson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1409613156s/22608584.jpg|42098563] and [b:The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon|17660462|The Everything Store Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon|Brad Stone|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1365394361s/17660462.jpg|24650037]), this book is written by somebody who was an employee at Alibaba rather than a journalist, which makes the book a much more enjoyable read. This gives Erisman the ability to reach beyond the narratives of disgruntled employees and mostly avoid the rumors and gossip that make it into most official accounts. Erisman also sidesteps an uncomfortable phenomenon whereby western authors whitewash their interactions with Chinese counterparts in order to maintain good relations after publishing (Such as [b:On China|9328314|On China|Henry Kissinger|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347773649s/9328314.jpg|14211568]).
Most interesting is background on the battle between Alibaba and Ebay, how Alibaba won the publicity war only to be beaten at its own game by Qihoo 360 in the domestic market. Also, having just finished Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo!, this was a great counterpoint to the Yahoo perspective, showing Alibaba’s worries about operating in the Chinese as a joint venture (who bought whom?), and ultimately failed attempts to rescue Yahoo! China.