Western Economic Institutions and Asia

MONDAY 17 OCTOBER 2005
"The impact of Western Economic Institutions on Asia: what's changed since the bursting of the Bubble Economy?"
(Updated 5th October 2005)

Location: Chatham House, 10 St James Square, London SW1Y 4LE
Nearest Tube Stations: Piccadilly Circus and Green Park.
Time:
To Register: please click on

Chair: Sir Geoffrey Owen, Interdisciplinary Institute of Management, London School of Economics

Speaker: Louis Turner, Chief Executive, Asia-Pacific Technology Network

Commentators Jeremy Gordon, Chief Executive, London, China Business Services Developments in China

Dr George Olcott, FME Teaching Fellow, Judge Business School Evidence from Japanese Employment Practices

Vaibhav Shukla, Associate, ALMT Legal Evolution of the legal environment in India

Background:
This seminar will launch a programme of activities focused on the impact that "western" business influences have had to Asian economies over the last 15 years.

During the mid-1990s there was a debate about the competition between capitalisms. Leading political figures in Asia lauded the economic virtues of "Asian Values" . They compared the benefits of Confucian paternalism and the importance of consensual group decision-making with the downside of the more ruthless and short-termist "Anglo-American" system based on rampant individualism, an over-dependence on lawyers and the tyranny of quarterly profit statements.

As Japan's post-bubble "lost decade" progressed and a number of Asian economies were devastated by the 1997 Asian Crisis, we heard much less about the virtues of Asian systems. In particular, the 1997 crisis demonstrated that there were major institutional weaknesses round the region, particularly concerning their financial systems.

Within Japan, the Renault-led restructuring of Nissan and the American-led rejuvenation of the Shinsei Bank suggested that Japanese companies had a lot to learn from their more profit-oriented Western competitors. At the same time, China's export-oriented economic boom has been built on so much foreign direct investment that it's very difficult to relate the China success story to the pre-1997 Asian Values debate.

Since it is now 15 years since the collapse of the Japanese bubble started to expose some of the weaknesses in the old Asian model, it seems timely to ask questions about how much of the Asian rebound rests on genuine changes in the strategies and governance of companies in the region - or how much of this rebound is a purely cyclical phenomenon.

Working with Chatham House's Asia Programme, we plan this seminar to be the first in a programme of activities designed to look at the impact that Western companies and other economic institutions have actually had on the region. That means we will not just look at the fairly obvious stories where Western companies have been influential, but will also look at regional success stories where the impact of foreign investors seems to have been non-existent (the likes of Toyota).

We will also look beyond the influence of blue-chip Western manufacturing companies to raise questions about the roles of: Investment banks
Vulture Funds
Accountancy companies
Management Consultants
Venture Capital Community
Ratings Agencies
Business Schools

Background to Chairman, Speaker and Commentators Sir Geoffrey Owen
Senior Fellow, Institute of Management, London School of Economics; former editor Financial Times.
Date of birth: April 16, 1934 Nationality: British Education: Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford 1956-1958 National Service in the Royal Air Force (officer in the education branch) 1958-1967 Journalist with the Financial Times - held various posts including Industrial Correspondent, Industrial Editor, and US Correspondent, based in New York 1967-1968 Executive with Industrial Reorganisation Corporation 1968-1973 Executive with British Leyland Motor Corporation - held various posts including Personnel and Administration Director, Overseas Division Returned to the Financial Times in 1973 - serving as deputy editor from 1974 to 1980, and editor from 1981 to 1990 1991-1996 Director of Business Policy, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics 1996 to date Senior Fellow, Institute of Management, London School of Economics Other posts: Non-executive director, The Laird Group Chairman, Wincott Foundation Member of the Advisory Committee, Office of Fair Trading, 2001-2003 Publications: "Industry in the USA", Penguin 1967, "From Empire to Europe: the decline and recovery of British industry since the second world war", HarperCollins 1999.
Louis Turner
Chairman and Chief Executive of the Asia-Pacific Technology Network.
Louis Turner has driven the Asia-Pacific Technology Network since it’s inception as the the UK-Japan High Technology Industry Forum back in 1986. He has written eleven books/monographs during his career on topics such as a history of the international oil industry, the rise of the Newly industrializing Countries, Middle Eastern Industrialization, Industrial Collaboration with Japan and the coming of Global Competition. Having created Chatham House's Conference Unit he has since run something like 250 conferences round the world, in locations which include Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Shanghai and Singapore. He has had a long relationship with Chatham House (which he first spoke to in 1970), and with the London School of Economics where he has taught with various partners (currently with Sir Geoffrey Owen and Mark Bleackley) an annual course on the politics of Global Business.
Jeremy Gordon,
Chief Executive, London, China Business Services
Jeremy is the founder of the company, and oversees all project activities. He has over 10 years of consulting experience in China, and was formerly the Chief Operating Officer of a leading Hong Kong-based consultancy. Originally in Hong Kong as an officer with Britain’s Brigade of Gurkhas, Jeremy studied law in the UK before gaining trade, investment and consulting experience working in Taiwan and Hong Kong. He has worked with some of the leading foreign investors in China, including companies such as Alstom, Krupp, Pfizer, Siemens and Standard Life. Jeremy has written and spoken widely on China business issues. He has acted as a conference and seminar resource for organisations including the Economist China Business Group, the Harvard ChinaReview, SMi, and Emerging Market Conferences. He has contributed to leading business publications such as the China-Britain Trade Review (China-Britain Business Council), the China Business Review (US-China Business Council), and the China Economic Review. He is an associate member of the China-Britain Business Council, a member of the China Association, and of the 48 Group Club. Jeremy is also a director of Bagnold Associates, a City of London-based risk management and business intelligence firm.
Dr George Olcott.
George has recently completed his Ph.D. dissertation at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge. His field of research is "the impact of foreign ownership and control on Japanese organizations". In March of this year he took up the post of FME Teaching Fellow at the Judge Business School. After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, George spent five years in Hong Kong and Japan working for Cathay Pacific Airways. After then spending two years at Shell International in London trading oil products, he joined the UK merchant bank SG Warburg (now UBS Investment Bank). He spent fifteen years at Warburg, ten of which were in Tokyo, where he latterly headed up the Equity Capital Markets Group. He also spent three years as head of UBS's institutional asset management operation in Japan. He left UBS to embark on his current research at Cambridge in 2001. He is a Visiting Scholar at the Policy Research Institute of the Ministry of Finance, Japan. George also has an MBA from INSEAD in France and is a fluent Japanese speaker.
Vaibhav Shukla
graduated from the University of Bombay in 1998 and was admitted to the Bar the same year. After graduating, in 1998, he worked with the renowned law firm D.H. Law Associates as an associate and also seconded to Mr. Shekhar Bhargava, Ex. Additional Solicitor General for the State of Madhya Pradesh. Vaibhav came to UK in 2002 and did his post graduation in law (LL.M) from the University of Warwick (secured merit). In conjunction with his LL.M he joined ALMT Legal to work part time and was employed full time by ALMT as an associate. Vaibhav has been able to gain experience in a wide range of laws including personal, property, common (contract, specific relief, negotiable instruments, torts etc.), companies, constitutional, criminal, employment and labour.

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Impact of Western Economic Institutions on Asia