“The unemployment rate shot up by half a percentage point in May, the biggest single-month increase in over twenty years,” notes Princeton economist Alan Krueger. The job cuts have hit the retail and financial services sectors particularly hard, and they illustrate problems in the economy in general. But they also point to opportunities for forward-thinking business leaders.
With net sales of $6 billion in 2007 and with enough might and fame to attract knowledge workers, Stryker is a prominent company worldwide. Yet even this highly successful global business faced major hurdles in hiring talented software developers and engineers in India.
The factors that motivate China’s executives and workers are no different from those that motivate any executive or any worker. So says Zhang Zhixue, an expert on Chinese business, who thinks Westerners are needlessly perplexed by China.