Wei Yen explores how differences in world views between Eastern and Western thought and culture
have on management and leadership behaviors. In The Geography of Thought Richard Nisbett showed
how the thought and culture of the East is rooted in Chinese Confucian ideals while that of the
West goes back to the early Greeks. In From Great Wall to Wall Street Wei Yen explores how
these differences impact today's leadership and management practices. He delves deeply into the
two cultures and their philosophical roots and explains why there can exist significant
misunderstandings between the two camps. Yen was born in China raised in Hong Kong educated
both there and in the US and then spent half his working life in the US and half in Asia. From
his vantage point straddling both cultures he compares and contrasts the pragmatic wholistic
Chinese (or Asian) management style with the rational and analytical Western management style.
He shows their pros and cons the areas where they differ and situations where one may be more
successful than the other. Yen argues that understanding traditional Chinese culture and how
it affects management behaviors and current events can help decision makers make better
decisions in business finance and politics. He further combines culture with credit analysis
to argue that it is unlikely that China will suffer a financial collapse despite a slowing
economy and high debt levels. Equally he shows how that same philosophical traditions also lie
behind China's inability to innovate or project the soft power that the West's globally
successful popular culture has achieved. How can the West take advantage of China's epic rise
to strike win-win outcomes? How can the Chinese be more integrated into the global community
and become a better global citizen in the future? How can policy makers make more realistic
policies? None of these can be accomplished without first understanding where each other is
coming from.
