Omnium Goes to China
Omnium takes you to China to provide a clearer picture of doing business in the most dynamic emerging economy in the world. China’s astonishing rise is a familiar story. With GDP growing at almost 10% for more than a decade, it has surpassed even the United States as the world’s leading destination for direct foreign investment, and it is now the world’s sixth largest foreign trading power. China is a driving force in business innovation; corporations not competing there risk being left behind.
During site visits to state-owned enterprises, joint ventures and private companies where local managers are available for briefings and discussion, Omnium participants have an opportunity to see beyond the hyperboles and clichés. They confront the many anomalies and contradictions that exist in Chinese business. They explore the prospects for post-Olympic growth in an economy currently fueled by Olympic construction. They analyze the risks and rewards the Chinese market presents. What’s the biggest challenge faced by foreign companies operating in China? Finding and retaining good people.
Surprised in China
“There were some fantastic site visits. In Shanghai, we met the general manager of a major Chinese automotive company. He came up with his own management philosophy – a sort of profit centre approach. It’s something you wouldn’t believe unless you saw it. According to this philosophy, everybody in the company should be a manager; everybody should be an entrepreneur. Every team is run like a separate company. Every team has its own supply chain, its own balance sheet, its own income statement, its own assets. You wouldn’t expect something like this in China.”
Omnium student Stephan Sieber
Director, Service Industries
SAP (Switzerland) Inc., Regensdorf, Switzerland
* Source: 2004 survey of companies in Ningbo, China, conducted by Professor Gu Qing-Liang, Institute of Textile Economics, Donghua University, Shanghai, China.
