One Billion Customers

From one of the most successful journalist/businessmen ever to do business inChina comes a blueprint for succeeding in the worlds fastest-growing consumermarket.

This book provides an insightful overview of the social-economical trends in modern China, their global influence, and the disrupting consequences for businesses and countries all over the world. It is a fresh look at the business conditions that Western firms face in China, poised to become the world's largest and most dynamic economy. Using a vast array facts and data, combined with personal stories and experiences, Mr. Agten provides an accessible and entertaining glimpse at Chinese megatrends, such as the development of the middle class, innovation and upskilling, digitalization of Chinese society, rising labor costs and more. This book is a must-read for entrepreneurs, executives and economists seeking to understand the Chinese market.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER What would actually make America great: more people. If the most challenging crisis in living memory has shown us anything, it’s that America has lost the will and the means to lead. We can’t compete with the huge population clusters of the global marketplace by keeping our population static or letting it diminish, or with our crumbling transit and unaffordable housing. The winner in the future world is going to have more—more ideas, more ambition, more utilization of resources, more people. Exactly how many Americans do we need to win? According to Matthew Yglesias, one billion. From one of our foremost policy writers, One Billion Americans is the provocative yet logical argument that if we aren’t moving forward, we’re losing. Vox founder Yglesias invites us to think bigger, while taking the problems of decline seriously. What really contributes to national prosperity should not be controversial: supporting parents and children, welcoming immigrants and their contributions, and exploring creative policies that support growth—like more housing, better transportation, improved education, revitalized welfare, and climate change mitigation. Drawing on examples and solutions from around the world, Yglesias shows not only that we can do this, but why we must. Making the case for massive population growth with analytic rigor and imagination, One Billion Americans issues a radical but undeniable challenge: Why not do it all, and stay on top forever?

In the past three decades, China has risen from near collapse to a powerhouse -- upending nearly every convention on the world stage, whether policy or business. China is now the globe’s second largest economy, second largest exporter, a manufacturing machine that has lifted 500 million of its citizens from poverty while producing more than one million US dollar millionaires. Then why do China’s leaders describe the nation’s economic model as “unstable and unsustainable”? Because it is. James McGregor has spent 25 years in China as a businessman, journalist and author. In this, his latest highly readable book, he offers extensive new research that pulls back the curtain on China’s economic power. He describes the much-vaunted “China Model” as one of authoritarian capitalism, a unique system that, in its own way, is terminating itself. It is proving incompatible with global trade and business governance. It is threatening multinationals, which fear losing their business secrets and technology to China’s mammoth state-owned enterprises. It is fielding those SOEs – China’s “national champions” -- into a global order angered by heavily subsidized state capitalism. And it is relying on an outdated investment and export model that’s running out of steam. What has worked in the past, won’t work in the future. The China Model must be radically overhauled if the country hopes to continue its march toward prosperity. The nation must consume more of what it makes. It must learn to innovate. It must unleash private enterprise. And the Communist Party bosses? They must cede their pervasive and smothering hold on economic power to foster the growth, and thus social stability, that they can’t survive without. Government must step back, the state-owned economy must be brought to heel, and opportunity must be freed. During the Tang Dynasty, an official in the imperial court observed: “No ancient wisdom, no followers.” He was lamenting that regime was headed alone into dangerous and uncharted waters without any precedent for guidance. Again today – as McGregor makes clear – this is China’s greatest challenge.

Hunger is a daily reality for a billion people. More than six decades after the technological discoveries that led to the Green Revolution aimed at ending world hunger, regular food shortages, malnutrition, and poverty still plague vast swaths of the world. And with increasing food prices, climate change, resource inequality, and an ever-increasing global population, the future holds further challenges.In One Billion Hungry, Sir Gordon Conway, one of the world's foremost experts on global food needs, explains the many interrelated issues critical to our global food supply from the science of agricultural advances to the politics of food security. He expands the discussion begun in his influential The Doubly Green Revolution: Food for All in the Twenty-First Century, emphasizing the essential combination of increased food production, environmental stability, and poverty reduction necessary to end endemic hunger on our planet. Conway addresses a series of urgent questions about global hunger: • How we will feed a growing global population in the face of a wide range of adverse factors, including climate change? • What contributions can the social and natural sciences make in finding solutions?• And how can we engage both government and the private sector to apply these solutions and achieve significant impact in the lives of the poor?Conway succeeds in sharing his informed optimism about our collective ability to address these fundamental challenges if we use technology paired with sustainable practices and strategic planning.Beginning with a definition of hunger and how it is calculated, and moving through issues topically both detailed and comprehensive, each chapter focuses on specific challenges and solutions, ranging in scope from the farmer's daily life to the global movement of food, money, and ideas. Drawing on the latest scientific research and the results of projects around the world, Conway addresses the concepts and realities of our global food needs: the legacy of the Green Revolution; the impact of market forces on food availability; the promise and perils of genetically modified foods; agricultural innovation in regard to crops, livestock, pest control, soil, and water; and the need to both adapt to and slow the rate of climate change. One Billion Hungry will be welcomed by all readers seeking a multifaceted understanding of our global food supply, food security, international agricultural development, and sustainability.

Praise for BLUEPRINT TO A BILLION "A wonderful, well thought out analysis of entrepreneurship and leadership of a growth company." —Howard Lester, Chairman, Williams-Sonoma, Inc. "If you dream about growing your business to a billion, this is a fascinating down-to-earth study that you must read. Apply the seven essential principles to your business and you are off and running. Learn about strategy, growth, leadership, team building, and a whole lot more." —Joe Scarlett, Chairman of the Board, Tractor Supply Company "Blueprint to a Billion is a well-researched and thoughtfully written book that quantifies the growth pattern of America's highest growth companies." —Professor John Quelch, Senior Associate Dean, Harvard Business School "Eighty percent of the top-performing stocks in the last twenty years were small entrepreneurial companies that had an IPO in the prior eight years. Blueprint to a Billion tells you the seven key things these innovators did in common to become America's greatest growth companies." —William J. O'Neil, Chairman and Founder Investor's Business Daily, www.investors.com "Thomson has written a masterful work that will catalyze, empower, inspire, motivate, and illuminate entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers. The world needs this book and will profit from it in manifold ways." —David M. Darst, Managing Director, Individual Investor Group Chief Investment Strategist, Morgan Stanley

This heart-wrenching story immerses readers in the dramatic survival of one outspoken man who illuminates the souls of a billion ordinary Chinese citizens. An Wei—a stubborn, hardworking peasant who has lived by his values and stood up for his convictions­—has succeeded against all odds in the authoritarian environment of China. Despite grinding poverty, hunger, reeducation campaigns, and attacks from jealous peers, An Wei continues to inspire with his daring achievements, such as launching a democratic congress in his own village. His compelling life provides a vivid backdrop for understanding the development of modern China from the unique perspective of an outspoken citizen. Through his audacious determination and survival skills forged in rural poverty, An Wei’s unstoppable drive to improve himself and rural China will captivate and enthrall readers. Her website can be found at https://nancypine.info/

The authors set out each of the scarcities that could limit China's power and stall its progress. Beyond scarcities of natural resources and public goods, they explore China's persistent poverties of individual freedoms, institutions, and ideological appeal--and the corrosive loss of values among a growing middle class shackled by a parochial and inflexible political system.

Why do citizens of states with strict surveillance care so little about their digital privacy? Why do Brazilians eschew geo-tagging on social media? What drives young Indians to friend “foreign” strangers on Facebook and give “missed calls” to people? Payal Arora answers these questions and many more about the internet’s next billion users.

There are a billion reasons Kate should marry her current boyfriend. Will she trade them all to be madly in love? Katie McKenna leads a perfect life. She has a fulfilling job, a cute apartment, and a wedding to plan with her soon-to-be fiancé, Dexter. She can think of a billion reasons why she should marry Dexter. He’s everything she wants in a husband. And then in walks Luc DeForges, her bold, breathtaking ex-boyfriend. Only now he’s a millionaire. And he wants her to go home to New Orleans to sing for a friend’s wedding. As his date. But Katie made up her mind about Luc eight years ago, when she fled their hometown after a very public breakup. Yet there’s still a magnetism between them she can’t deny. Katie thought her predictable relationship with Dexter would be the bedrock of a lasing, Christian marriage. But what if there’s more? What if God’s desire for her is a heart full of life? And what if that’s what Luc has offered all along? "Katie and Luc dance off the pages of this book, making you fall in love with them and New Orleans. Full of surprises and romance." —Carolyne Aarsen, author of The Baby Promise