Southeast Asia has a population of more than half a billion, yet its economy is dominated by about 40 families, most of Overseas Chinese descent. Their conglomerates span sectors as diverse as real estate, telecommunications, hotels, industrial goods, computers and sugar plantations. New Asian Emperors shows how and why Overseas Chinese companies continue to dominate the region and have extended their reach in East Asia, despite the Asian financial and SARS crises of the past decade. The authors base their conclusions on in-depth structured interviews spanning a decade with the often elusive Overseas Chinese CEOs including Li Ka-shing, Stan Shih, Victor Fung, Stephen Riady and Sukanto Tanoto, as well as on the strategic information that their companies use.

The analysis of the New Asian Emperors' present-day management techniques and practices draws on the history, culture and philosophical perspectives of the Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. In the midst of today's global economic crisis, this book also takes a fresh look at the role and management practices of the Overseas Chinese as they continue to create some of Asia's wealthiest and most successful companies.

New Asian Emperors explains:

• The sources and characteristics of Overseas Chinese management
• Whether Overseas Chinese management practices will spread in the same way that Japanese management did in the 1970s
• Whether Western management technologies have found themselves outmaneuvered in Asia's post-crisis arena
• The Overseas Chinese managers' strategies for the informational black hole of Southeast Asia and what Western managers can learn from them
• The New Asian Emperors' unique strategic perspectives and management styles revealed through exclusive, in-depth interviews
• The implications for successfully co-operating and competing with the Overseas Chinese of Southeast Asia

New Asian Emperors offers key insights into the Overseas Chinese and the important role that cultural roots play in their dominance of Southeast Asian business.

Usha C. V. Haley (PhD, New York University) is Asia Programs Fellow, Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University and Research Associate at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, DC. She has been Professor at the University of New Haven and prior at University of Tennessee-Knoxville, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Australian National University, National University of Singapore and ITESM-Monterrey, Mexico. She has more than 150 publications, presentations and books including Multinational Corporations in Political Environments and The Chinese Tao of Business. She has testified before the Congressionally mandated US-China Economic and Security Review Commission and the Committee on Ways and Means, and presented before the US International Trade Commission. She serves on several corporate and government boards.

Chin Tiong Tan (PhD, Pennsylvania State University) is the Deputy President of Singapore Management University. He was a founding member of SMU and was its Provost from 1999 to 2008. He is active in management development and consulting. He designed and taught in many executive programs around the world, and is a regular speaker in the US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and South Africa. He was the Academic Advisor to Singapore Airline's Management Development Centre for more than 15 years. He is on the Boards of Directors of several listed companies and served as strategic and business advisor to many organizations. He is the co-author of Marketing Management: An Asian Perspective, 5th Edition, 2009, Prentice Hall (with Philip Kotler).