A 30-year veteran of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), KENNETH WILCOX was the bank’s CEO from 2001 to 2011 and Vice Chairman of SVB’s joint venture in Shanghai (SSVB) until 2019. He is a former member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

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• Acknowledgments xiiiAbout the Author xvAcronyms xviiIntroduction xixPrologue: the Green Hat Award xxiWhy I Wrote This Book xxiiHow I Structured This Account and Gathered My Information xxvPart I The Long Lead-up 1Chapter 1 Silicon Valley Bank Goes to China: Inadvertent Tech Transfer 31.1 Why Silicon Valley Bank? The Bank for Innovation 41.2 Why China? 91.3 Why Me? 14Chapter 2 It Starts with Guanxi : Kissing Frogs and Finding a Prince 192.1 A Prince at Last 202.2 Reaching the King 23Chapter 3 Orienting Ourselves: the Staff, the Teams, and The Runaround 313.1 Settling In: The Local Staff 323.2 Settling In: The Local Experts 373.3 Getting to Work: The Secret Team 42Chapter 4 Pains in the Neck: the New Bank’s Location, Organization, and Identity 514.1 The Org Chart 534.2 Issues to Resolve 684.3 The Letter and What I Learned 714.4 Achieving the Impossible 734.5 December 2011 744.6 Wrapping Up 2011 77Chapter 5 Slogging Along: Resolving Some of the Major Issues 815.1 The Breakthrough in the Tea House at the Zigzag Bridge 865.2 A Turning Point 895.3 Put in Our Place 91Chapter 6 The Grand Opening and Yet More Licenses We Didn’t Have 996.1 A License to Wait 1016.2 The Worry of Warrants 1046.3 Growing Anxiety 1056.4 Regulation 106Chapter 7 Staffing: Ccp Offspring, Parents, and Cultural Differences 1117.1 Recruiting: Sons and Daughters of the Party 1127.2 Retaining: The Brain Drain 1167.3 Deeper in the Joint Venture 1187.3.1 Managing the Lenders 1187.3.2 Assisting Lao Ding 1207.3.3 The Bank That Didn’t Pay Graft 120Chapter 8 Where the Money Goes, Finding My Successor, and More About China 1238.1 Seeking a Successor 1248.2 Entertainments, 2012 1268.2.1 Chinese Medicine 1308.3 Reflecting 1328.4 Wrapping Up 2012 132Part II After the License 137Chapter 9 Hastening the Timeline: the Four-prong Strategy And What “letting the Customer Decide” Really Means 1399.1 Complexities 1459.2 Moving Forward, Maybe 1489.2.1 How “Letting the Customer Decide” Really Works 1519.2.2 Making Progress? 1549.3 The Danger of Hope 156Chapter 10 The New Sheriff: XI Comes to Power 15910.1 The Party Committee 16310.2 Building the Bank’s Culture 16410.3 Building Guanxi 16810.4 The Carrot Overhead 171Chapter 11 Irreconcilable Differences: the More We Knew, The Worse Things Looked 17711.1 The Successor Is Named 18011.2 Filling in the Blanks 18411.3 Wrapping Up 2013 186Chapter 12 Wrapping Up My Stay: Staff Changes, More Lessons, Still No Rmb 19312.1 I Could Have Gone Home 19812.2 Becoming Vice Chairman 20112.3 Warrants at Last 20312.4 Conversations in Context 20512.5 Body Count 20812.6 Revolution on the Doorstep 21212.7 Leaving 213Chapter 13 Success in a Fashion: China’s New Tech Bank (which Wasn’t Us), and Being Vice Chairman 217Part III The Chinese Communist Party 223Chapter 14 The Ccp’s Role and Influence 22514.1 “Party, Government, Military, Civilian, and Academic, East, West, South, North, and Center, The Party Leads Everything.” 22614.2 The Chinese Banking System and Economy 22714.2.1 Chinese Economics 23214.3 Opinions of Others About the CCP 23714.4 Attitudes of the CCP 23914.5 Changes with Xi 241Chapter 15 Practical Guidelines for Working with the Ccp 24715.1 Contracts and the CCP 25015.2 CCP Negotiation 25115.2.1 Random Observations 25615.3 The CCP and Control 25815.4 The CCP and History 260Part IV The other 93 Percent 265Chapter 16 Chinese Beliefs 26716.1 Chinese Beliefs 26916.2 Attitudes Toward Americans 27916.3 Overseas Chinese 282Chapter 17 The Lives of the other 93 Percent 28717.1 The Life of Xiao Hong 29017.2 Non-Chinese Living in China 29417.3 Strange Things That Happen 295Chapter 18 Conclusion: Seeking Truth From Facts, Making Sense of It All, and Trying to Predict the Future 29718.1 How Western Companies Fail in China 304Part V Four years lessons, condensed 317Epilogue 325References 329Bibliography 331Index 339

A 30-year veteran of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), KENNETH WILCOX was the bank’s CEO from 2001 to 2011 and Vice Chairman of SVB’s joint venture in Shanghai (SSVB) until 2019. He is a former member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

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• Acknowledgments xiiiAbout the Author xvAcronyms xviiIntroduction xixPrologue: the Green Hat Award xxiWhy I Wrote This Book xxiiHow I Structured This Account and Gathered My Information xxvPart I The Long Lead-up 1Chapter 1 Silicon Valley Bank Goes to China: Inadvertent Tech Transfer 31.1 Why Silicon Valley Bank? The Bank for Innovation 41.2 Why China? 91.3 Why Me? 14Chapter 2 It Starts with Guanxi : Kissing Frogs and Finding a Prince 192.1 A Prince at Last 202.2 Reaching the King 23Chapter 3 Orienting Ourselves: the Staff, the Teams, and The Runaround 313.1 Settling In: The Local Staff 323.2 Settling In: The Local Experts 373.3 Getting to Work: The Secret Team 42Chapter 4 Pains in the Neck: the New Bank’s Location, Organization, and Identity 514.1 The Org Chart 534.2 Issues to Resolve 684.3 The Letter and What I Learned 714.4 Achieving the Impossible 734.5 December 2011 744.6 Wrapping Up 2011 77Chapter 5 Slogging Along: Resolving Some of the Major Issues 815.1 The Breakthrough in the Tea House at the Zigzag Bridge 865.2 A Turning Point 895.3 Put in Our Place 91Chapter 6 The Grand Opening and Yet More Licenses We Didn’t Have 996.1 A License to Wait 1016.2 The Worry of Warrants 1046.3 Growing Anxiety 1056.4 Regulation 106Chapter 7 Staffing: Ccp Offspring, Parents, and Cultural Differences 1117.1 Recruiting: Sons and Daughters of the Party 1127.2 Retaining: The Brain Drain 1167.3 Deeper in the Joint Venture 1187.3.1 Managing the Lenders 1187.3.2 Assisting Lao Ding 1207.3.3 The Bank That Didn’t Pay Graft 120Chapter 8 Where the Money Goes, Finding My Successor, and More About China 1238.1 Seeking a Successor 1248.2 Entertainments, 2012 1268.2.1 Chinese Medicine 1308.3 Reflecting 1328.4 Wrapping Up 2012 132Part II After the License 137Chapter 9 Hastening the Timeline: the Four-prong Strategy And What “letting the Customer Decide” Really Means 1399.1 Complexities 1459.2 Moving Forward, Maybe 1489.2.1 How “Letting the Customer Decide” Really Works 1519.2.2 Making Progress? 1549.3 The Danger of Hope 156Chapter 10 The New Sheriff: XI Comes to Power 15910.1 The Party Committee 16310.2 Building the Bank’s Culture 16410.3 Building Guanxi 16810.4 The Carrot Overhead 171Chapter 11 Irreconcilable Differences: the More We Knew, The Worse Things Looked 17711.1 The Successor Is Named 18011.2 Filling in the Blanks 18411.3 Wrapping Up 2013 186Chapter 12 Wrapping Up My Stay: Staff Changes, More Lessons, Still No Rmb 19312.1 I Could Have Gone Home 19812.2 Becoming Vice Chairman 20112.3 Warrants at Last 20312.4 Conversations in Context 20512.5 Body Count 20812.6 Revolution on the Doorstep 21212.7 Leaving 213Chapter 13 Success in a Fashion: China’s New Tech Bank (which Wasn’t Us), and Being Vice Chairman 217Part III The Chinese Communist Party 223Chapter 14 The Ccp’s Role and Influence 22514.1 “Party, Government, Military, Civilian, and Academic, East, West, South, North, and Center, The Party Leads Everything.” 22614.2 The Chinese Banking System and Economy 22714.2.1 Chinese Economics 23214.3 Opinions of Others About the CCP 23714.4 Attitudes of the CCP 23914.5 Changes with Xi 241Chapter 15 Practical Guidelines for Working with the Ccp 24715.1 Contracts and the CCP 25015.2 CCP Negotiation 25115.2.1 Random Observations 25615.3 The CCP and Control 25815.4 The CCP and History 260Part IV The other 93 Percent 265Chapter 16 Chinese Beliefs 26716.1 Chinese Beliefs 26916.2 Attitudes Toward Americans 27916.3 Overseas Chinese 282Chapter 17 The Lives of the other 93 Percent 28717.1 The Life of Xiao Hong 29017.2 Non-Chinese Living in China 29417.3 Strange Things That Happen 295Chapter 18 Conclusion: Seeking Truth From Facts, Making Sense of It All, and Trying to Predict the Future 29718.1 How Western Companies Fail in China 304Part V Four years lessons, condensed 317Epilogue 325References 329Bibliography 331Index 339