From Mike Graves’s tall windows, which were draped in red velvet, the view of Shanghai was spectacular: the stately old Western-style buildings, the riot of modern skyscrapers, the familiar needle of the TV tower. But today Mike barely noticed it. Clenching a copy of his Chinese partner’s proposal for another acquisition—it would be the company’s fourth—he paced the floor and replayed in his mind that morning’s unsettling phone call.

A version of this article appeared in the August 2003 issue of Harvard Business Review.