China: Help Wanted; The nation faces a critical shortage of top managers, a situation that could threaten its economic boom.

Publication: Newsweek

Publication Date: 31-OCT-05

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2005 Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved. Any reuse, distribution or alteration without express written permission of Newsweek is prohibited. For permission: www.newsweek.com

Byline: Sarah Schafer

Chief executive Li Hsu had a problem. The head of Fiberxon, a California manufacturer of components for communications networks, spent three months searching for a vice president of his main operations, which are in China. He finally landed one--who left three months later for a better offer. For another top job, Hsu poached a candidate from one of his vendors in Taiwan. In China, he says, it's easy to find weak recruits, but topnotch talent? That's tough--very tough.

China faces a critical shortage: experienced, highly skilled managers. The numbers are astounding. The country has some 25,000 state companies, 4.3 million private firms and massive industrial overcapacity. But it has too few experienced managers for even the...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.