Recruiting in China

Only one-third of company directors in Asia outside Japan have taken formal steps to ensure an orderly succession when a chief executive leaves, a recruitment firm's study said Monday.
The findings are a stark contrast to some Western countries where up to 80 percent of directors have steps in place to see that when one chief executive departs, a replacement is ready to assume the post.

Among the markets surveyed were China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

The board of directors study was produced by Korn/Ferry International. It looked at boardroom practices of major companies, covering 1,200 directors from 15 economies. Compared to Asia's 34 percent of directors who had taken formal steps to ensure orderly succession, the Americas, including the United States, Brazil and Colombia, emerged with 76 percent, according to results published in The Straits Times.

Eighty percent of companies in Australia and New Zealand have a process for management succession.

"Boards in the Asia-Pacific are beginning to take a more calculated approach to board governance, adopting more Western practices to improve the performance of their boards," Marta Grutka, regional director of marketing at Korn/Ferry, was quoted as saying.

Noting that much of Asia has handled management changes through family ties, she said that the process is changing.