[photopress:bill_gates_halo_3.jpg,full,alignright]China News has a story on the fact that in the next five years there will be 20,000 corporate managers emerging in the market in China. At the same time, about 100,000-200,000 middle-level or senior managers will be needed. Bit of a shortfall.
At the same time the forecast is that more and more multinational companies will shift their attention to China and expand their investment in the Chinese market.
Chen Litong, president and executive director of the Development Dimensions International, a US consulting firm, comments that thus there will be a further demand for managerial talents. No argument.
Most Chinese companies have followed a traditional management mode for many years. However, as more cultures come to China and business modes change rapidly it is possible to make the argument that Chinese entrepreneurs should change their management mode.
Chinese companies put great emphasis on questions like human relationship cultivation, team spirit, respect and trust. While these are also important in Western companies, business managers in the West act in a more entrepreneurial way in that they are willing to take some risks. And, perhaps, in the West, age and experience are not valued in the same way.
Making a list of the major achievers in the West in recent years two aspects keep coming up: the youth of the innovators — think Bill Gates — and, often, their lack of business education — Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and on and on.
It is possible in Western cultures to become the CEO of a medium sized company at the age of 25. And this without an MBA or other formal training. At the moment this is not, perhaps, the case in China. If ten times as many managers are needed as will be made available using traditional methods then perhaps traditional methods will have to change.
Source: China News