In the six years since China joined the World Trade Organization, Chinese acquisitions of businesses in other countries have increased sharply. Chinese officials estimate this “outbound foreign direct investment” at a mere $551 million in 2000 but at nearly $7 billion in 2005.1 That is only a fraction of the $60 billion2 or so of investment flowing annually into China, but it represents a growing number of Chinese companies scanning the horizon for opportunities to invest abroad.
One of the most prominent examples of that trend was the 2005 acquisition of IBM’s personal-computer division by Lenovo Group, based in Hong Kong, for $1.2 billion. The success of this deal, heralded as a signal moment in China’s transition from a developing to an industrial economy, was due in no small part to Lenovo’s energetic senior vice president and CFO, Mary Ma.
Before joining Lenovo, in 1990, Ma worked at the government-run Chinese Academy of Sciences, where she managed science and technology research projects jointly developed by Chinese and European organizations. She was also involved in the administration of World Bank loan projects to support research in China. Today Ma is widely recognized as one of her country’s most influential...