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Warren Liu

Retired MBA lecturer and China entrepreneur
Author, KFC in China: Secret Recipe for Success
Travels from: Shanghai
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Warren Liu has translated his extensive business experience in China and a passion for teaching into lecturing at select IMBA programs within Greater China. His expertise includes best practices and pitfalls for Western companies entering or conducting business in China; China’s business, cultural, social, historic and political context; China’s economic reform and its domestic, regional and global impact; and the contrasts between Chinese and Western values and business practices. In addition to teaching, lecturing and social work focused on education, his recent professional pursuits include hands-on, general management experience in industries as diverse as internet, restaurant service, financial service, general manufacturing and supply chain logistics, all within Greater China.

Since 1991, Mr. Liu has held the following positions: VP Marketing and GM Asia Pacific, Schlumberger/Applicon; VP Marketing and Business Development of Asia Pacific and GM North Asia, Schlumberger Measurement & Systems Group; SVP/GM Greater China, MasterCard; VP Business Development, Supply Chain and IT Greater China, YUM! Brands; GM China, Burger King; and COO, etang.com. Before 1991, Mr. Liu held various positions in Fortune 500 companies, as well as venture start-ups, in industries including aerospace, telecommunications and computer software in the USA.

During 2003-2009, Mr. Liu taught several MBA courses in China, Taiwan and the USA, including Strategic Management, Organizational Leadership and Change Management, Managing Global Business, Organization Behavior and Marketing. Most recently Mr. Liu taught at Tsinghua University IMBA (Beijing), Tongji University IMBA (Shanghai) and Cheng-Chi University IMBA (Taiwan). Mr. Liu was rated by two consecutive classes (2006 & 2007) of Tongji’s IMBA students as the best instructor of their two-year education program.

Over the years Mr. Liu has been featured in a number of industry and academic conferences, panel discussions, US Congressional Delegations to China and other events. In August 2007, Mr. Liu published, in Chinese, a strategic management book, KFC: Number One in China; in September 2008, an English version followed, KFC in China: Secret Recipe for Success, published by Wiley.

Mr. Liu is a graduate of the City College of New York (BS, Mathematics), University of Wisconsin - Madison (MS, Business Statistics) and Harvard Business School (MBA, General Management).
In the News:

Click here to download an audio clip of Warren Liu's interview with China Radio International on KFC's success in China.

Books & Publications:
'Warren Liu's fascinating book provides deep insights into the enormous success of KFC in the Chinese market. He unravels the key factors-not only KFC's overall strategy but its embrace of localization, rapid execution, and other adaptations-that spell success, even against McDonald's. The author knows the story from the inside, as a key leader in the KFC China effort when it really accelerated, and he tells the story with both analytical rigor and verve. This is a serious and fascinating study.'

Kenneth Lieberthal
Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Political Science
William Davidson Professor of Business Administration
University of Michigan

'This is an extraordinarily insightful 'How to do it' book written about one of America's greatest success stories in China. It brilliantly captures how the criteria for success has changed over the past 20 years as political liberalization has occurred and improved infrastructure in the country -----there is much to be learned by the practicing manager from studying the KFC example.'

F. Warren McFarlan
Baker Foundation Professor
Albert H. Gordon Professor of Business Administration Emeritus
 Harvard Business School