Billions of Entrepreneurs: Conversations with Tarun Khanna

Asia Society exclusive interview with Tarun Khanna

Business Writer's Series with Tarun Khanna
Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours

NEW YORK, Feb. 6, 2008 - China and India currently operate in the global economy as mirror images of each other—one favors multinationals over indigenous private companies, the other advantages its locals and shuns foreigners. Harvard Business School Professor Tarun Khanna was joined at the Asia Society by China and India business experts Clay Chandler and Mira Kamdar in a discussion about his just-published book Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours, which addresses this trend and many others.

Professor Tarun Khanna (Elsa Ruiz/Asia Society)

The panelists explored the likely evolution of the Chinese and Indian business models and the implications for the region and the world. While they agreed that the rise of China and India is an opportunity for both profit and hope, and maintained that both countries had much to learn from each other, they held varying views as to the viability of specific regional business models.

Speakers:
Clay Chandler, Asia Editor, FORTUNE
Mira Kamdar, Bernard Schwartz Fellow, Asia Society
Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School

Listen on Demand (1 hr., 33 min.)

A Conversation with Tarun Khanna

NEW YORK, Jan. 29, 2008 - Tarun Khanna is a professor at Harvard Business School and the author of Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours, in which he discusses the importance of entrepreneurs in the growth of these two booming Asian economies. What is the role of entrepreneurship in the growth of India and China? How are two of the fastest-growing societies in the world reinventing themselves? How do the two economies compare, and should the world be wary of their rise? In this interview Professor Khanna talks to Asia Society's Nermeen Shaikh about what he terms a "book of hope," arguing that the rise of India and China provides endless grounds for optimism.

Listen on Demand (18 min., 20 sec.)

Billions of Entrepreneurs is available from the AsiaStore.

Tarun Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School. He was born and raised in India and works in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours is published by Harvard Business School Press.

Nermeen Shaikh is the Managing Editor of Asia Society Online. Her book The Present as History: Critical Perspectives on Global Power has just been published by Columbia University Press. She studied politics at Cambridge University in England and at Queen's University in Canada.