A Closer Look: Lewis, McGlashan, MBA 1984 and 90

Relationships matter in business as in life. And perhaps nowhere do they matter more than in China. With that in mind, two American GSB grads and their closest relations, their dads, founded a business based on ties with the Chinese.
       Steve Lewis, MBA '84, and Bill McGlashan, MBA '90, are the younger generation of Generation Ventures, "serial entrepreneurs" based in San Mateo, Calif., who start up businesses in or with the People's Republic. The elder Lewis (John, a Stanford professor of Chinese political studies) and McGlashan senior (William, MBA '66) were in from the firm's beginning in 1994, with Lewis providing a decades-long relationship with the Chinese and the three MBAs lending management expertise with both traditional and entrepreneurial firms. "Guanxi, or relationships, continues to be core to the Chinese culture," says Steve Lewis. "It may be a key element in accessing interesting business opportunities, but guanxi does not take the place of sound business practices."
       "Our focus is not to invest money ourselves; our focus is to start companies," says Bill McGlashan, and GV now has 13 companies in which China is, in one way or another, part of the package. For example, the firm has introduced Russian space technologies and a popular South American soft drink to China, and its dietary supplement company, Pharmanex, has brought traditional Chinese nutritional supplements to the United States. Pharmanex has received the most attention this year, not all of it welcome. Within the space of a few weeks last spring, the firm was sued for trademark infringement (Pharmanex won) and threatened by the FDA for selling a "drug" in the guise of a supplement (the dickering continues). But two Pharmanex products were lauded by Health Newsletter in its best-products issue, and two excelled in Pharmanex-sponsored clinical trials at UCLA and the University of Kansas.
       As the firm grows, relationships continue to matter to GV. When William McGlashan retired a year ago, his place was taken by Blake Winchell, MBA '79. Furthering the connection, GV associate Janice Lin is among the next generation of GSB alums. She entered the Business School in the fall.

Steve Lewis and Bill McGlashan (right) built a new kind of family business with ties far from home.