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Case Study

Alcatel in China: Business as an adventure

By William A. Fischer, Katherine Xin, Denis Fred Simon and Janet Caromsky

15 pages

December 2003

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Reference: IMD-3-1301

Take the world’s most challenging market. Concentrate almost all your previously dispersed assets–12 joint ventures and wholly owned businesses–into one basket. Move the management of all of your regional activities to this location. Place access to your worldwide intellectual property on the table and add $312 million for the portion of equity in a joint venture that gets you up to 50% plus one share, and then turn the venture’s structure and governance on its head in order to not only build the most technically and sales-aggressive telecom competitor in the China market, but one that also gives you access to Chinese brains and brawn in producing a global product for the global market. A recipe for revolution across the global market place, or yet another misguided investment in China’s elusive dream? Alcatel, France’s venerable telecom giant, is betting the former.

Keywords

Telecommunication, Intellectual Property

Settings

China
Alcatel-Lucent
2002

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

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Teaching note

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2004 EFMD AWARD WINNER (Emerging Chinese Global Competitors)

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