An intriguing but niche look at the business practices of state-affiliated Chinese businesses.
In this debut business memoir, Jenevein warns against the potential pitfalls of doing business with Chinese companies.
The author did business in China for over 20 years, working with the Communist Party of China to provide energy to “the cities, hinterlands, offices, and homes of the only nation that comes close to competing with the United States diplomatically, economically, militarily, [and] technologically.” Jenevein’s Texas-based company, Tang Energy Group, was founded to build and operate energy delivery systems in China, from gas-powered plants to wind farms. His dealings with the CPC and their state-owned conglomerates—which can throw their immense weight around in a manner no independent company can—have given him a unique insight into the way America’s rival superpower conducts business, from aggressive lawsuits to bugged conversations to the threat of hired assassins. Jenevein expounds on the Chinese business culture—which, in the absence of dependably enforced laws, relies heavily on established social networks—mining his own, not-always-successful track record for examples. The book is structured as a conversation between Jenevein and writer Steve Fiffer, who interviews Jenevein and occasionally adds insights of his own. Jenevein offers a fascinating look into the labyrinthian process of dealing with fundamentally secretive business partners: “You learn that the [People’s Liberation Army] skews topographic maps so foreigners—whether army personnel or wind farm developers—cannot make sense of them. Because frustration has boiled over and expressed itself effectively to your PRC counterparties, they have provided the key to de-skew the maps.” Much of the text focuses on a dispute between Jenevein and the Chinese aviation company AVIC, which Jenevein claims reneged on a deal to develop wind technology with Tang; it seems, at points, as though the purpose of the book is to let Jenevein settle scores as much as to offer advice. Those who find themselves in the rare position of making multimillion-dollar deals with Chinese corporations may find his account instructive, but it is difficult to imagine it attracting a wider audience.
An intriguing but niche look at the business practices of state-affiliated Chinese businesses.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781960865229
Page Count: 348
Publisher: Christmas Lake Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
IN THE NEWS
A passionate and accessible guide to humanizing the workplace.
Helbig and Norman present a game plan for making leadership more responsively human.
In this expanded update to The Psychological Safety Playbook: Lead More Powerfully by Being More Human (2023), the authors provide “practical strategies for responding to resistance, sparking change, embodying the change we want to see, and moving forward deliberately,” specifically in a business setting. They suggest ways to encourage what they call “changemakers” through the use of five key “plays” from their playbook: Communicate Courageously, Master the Art of Listening, Manage Your Reactions (“shift from automatic reaction to conscious response to stay better connected to yourself and others”), Embrace Risk and Failure, and Design Inclusive Rituals. The goal is to ensure that organizational cultures promote psychological safety, guided by leaders who “walk the talk” by emphasizing their own humanity at every turn. (“We must be the first to share our own failures with our teams, which will start to make it possible for others to do the same.”) This call for example-setting is sounded throughout the book as Helbig and Norman urge their target audience (leaders and would-be leaders) to go beyond mere instruction and instead embody the qualities they want to see in their subordinates, such as continuous learning, active curiosity, and self-reflection. Each chapter includes a detailed “Recommended Reading” section and text with extensive numbered and bulleted points formatted to make the core concepts more immediately digestible. The authors effectively employ clear and empathetic prose to assure readers that psychological safety is slow to build and quick to break, observing that such safety requires steady attention and delivers outsize payoffs as a result. They refreshingly ground a great deal of the material in psychology and neuroscience, pointing out, for instance, that research has demonstrated that the parasympathetic nervous system responds to honest appreciation, which improves creative thinking. Some wistful readers might consider some of the authors’ suggestions beyond the reach of their own organizations, as when group facilitators are advised to “gently intervene when someone dominates the conversation,” but hope springs eternal.
A passionate and accessible guide to humanizing the workplace.Pub Date: May 19, 2026
ISBN: 9798993550503
Page Count: 170
Publisher: Crazy Idea Press
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
