Living in China I have noticed that people were really hard working and ambitious.  More than undergrad or grad school or even Microsoft in Redmond, I feel that the people I meet are really budding tycoons looking for the next great opportunity and working hard to be ready for it!  Therefore I was surprised to read the following article in the economist: 

 

The article suggests that there will be a shortage of talent in Asia and that will hamper economic growth.  Some of the interesting tid bits in the article were:

 

People between ages 50-60 today are "Lost" to the cultural revolution

**** China's educational difficulties are different—and often linked to the country's history. Universities were closed during the Cultural Revolution and few well-educated people entered the workforce for over a decade. This has resulted in a lost generation of business people between the ages of 50 and 60, exactly the age group from where many of China's corporate leaders should be drawn today.

 

Expats, even repatriated ones aren't always as effective as hoped

**** Hiring Asians who have been educated overseas and bringing them back does not always work. They often expect to be paid a lot. Some demand expatriate packages with paid flights back to America or Europe. They may also be out of touch with local developments. But the biggest difficulty is that their colleagues frequently resent them. This is especially so in China, where one of the politer names for returning people is hai gui or sea turtles.

 

Girls are considered good for hiring because they are less spoilt than boys

**** Girls born after the Cultural Revolution are much less likely to have been spoilt, which means some employers see them as good hires. Liam Casey, the boss of PCH China Solutions, a contract-manufacturer in southern China, says he once noticed in a shopping mall that there were typically groups of seven people or groups of three. The groups of seven consisted of two sets of grandparents, parents and a boy. Those of three comprised parents and a daughter. He says he realised then that girls were valued less by society and that if he hired them and showed them loyalty, they would be more loyal in return. This is one reason, he says, that his business has much lower rates of staff turnover than his rivals' businesses do.