The next wave of global disruption and the role of China’s entrepreneurs

Abstract

Purpose

Two recent books will be of considerable value to company leaders and strategists seeking to deepen their understanding of the major trends driving this current wave of global transformation: “No Ordinary Disruption: The Four Global Forces Breaking All the Trends” and “China’s Disruptors: How Alibaba, Xiaomi, Tencent and Other Companies are Changing the Rules of Business.”

Design/methodology/approach

The author considers what dynamic capabilities that will be needed to compete in a world of “transient advantage,” like modern China, with its “complicated and quickly changing demand pattern,” hyper-competition, shifting industry boundaries, and “discontinuities in the regulatory context.” He believes that China is the business management laboratory within which these skills are already being honed.

Findings

By the turn of the millennium, the total revenue generated by private [Chinese] companies had already risen to parity with those of the state-enterprise sector, and since then it has grown more than six times faster.

Practical implications

The rise of China’s reform era entrepreneurs has come in three waves to date, each representing a significant progression in the collective capabilities and sophistication of the country’s ever-expanding entrepreneurial cadre.

Originality/value

Foreign multi-nationals would be wise to consider “what capabilities will have to be developed in China, for China,” learn from their Chinese rivals and ask where it might be possible to use these new “China’ capabilities ” to enhance performance globally.

Citation

Leavy, B. (2016), "The next wave of global disruption and the role of China’s entrepreneurs", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 44 No. 3, pp. 27-37. https://doi.org/10.1108/SL-04-2016-0020