Unconventional wisdom -- that is what is needed for business success in Asia, because Asia is like nowhere else. Personalities count for a lot. Culture does too and so does ethnicity. Best-selling author Michael Backman takes the reader on a journey from the outside to Asia's inside in The Asian Insider. To the breakneck development of Shanghai and Beijing; to the messiness of Mumbai (Bombay) and the stunning software and backoffice industries elsewhere in India; to Southeast Asia where Islam is re-awakening as a force in business; to Japan with its moribund economy that literally is dying; to Malaysia with its unique mix of race, politics and business; and to Singapore with all the paradoxes of its state-led economy. Rich in facts, figures and anecdotes, part management guide, part travel narrative, part polemic, The Asian Insider is highly readable and entertaining. Asia's family connections, business practices, politicians, commercial tribes, and business figures -- all are handled in Backman's direct and uncompromising style.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 The Asian insider : an introduction
2 Asian family connections
3 Is democracy always good?
4 Paying peanuts : politicians’ pay in Asia
5 Police corruption and the rule of law in Thailand
6 Executions and extrajudicial killings
7 Government statistics and other lies
8 Thaksin Berlusconi and Silvio Shinawatra
9 The end of Indonesia
10 Why Singapore is different : the Babas of Singapore
11 Reinventing Singapore?
12 Singapore Inc. or Singapore sink?
13 Singapore’s thriving sex industry
14 Diversity and decency in Malaysia
15 Rumours and gossip in Malaysia
16 Meet Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary
17 Allahu Akbar! Islam in Asia
18 Where do Asia’s Muslims fit in?
19 Southeast Asia’s Arabs
20 Pax Islamica : Malaysia and the Middle East
21 Land of the setting Sun : the inevitable death of Japan
22 Law, order and China
23 Is booming China a threat to Asia?
24 Shanghai : China’s financial capital
25 And then there is Beijing
26 The Dalai Lama eats meat
27 The Indian way
28 The world’s biggest democracy
29 Mumbai : India’s financial capital
30 India’s great software revolution
31 India : back office to the world
32 Stunning Korea
33 The insider