Going, Gome, Gone?

摘要

Whatever your notion of what constitutes good corporate governance for a listed company, having an important executive arrested is a problem. But not even being able to say whether, or why, an executive has been arrested is worse. Such is the lot of Gome, China's largest electronics retailer, with 12% of the market, about half as much again as its nearest rival. In a few months Gome has gone from an example of extraordinary success, as it served China's pent-up consumer demand, to an example of the murky and fragile state of Chinese business.rnGome is in trouble partly for reasons beyond its control: the impact of an economic slowdown on clearly chastened Chinese consumers. But it is also at risk because of the way it is managed. In September Gome's founder and chairman, Huang Guangyu (pictured), was being described as Asia's equivalent of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart.