More M.B.A.s From China Seek Employment Back Home
March 14th, 2007By Ronald Alsop
When Zhe Xu receives his M.B.A. degree from the University of California at Berkeley this spring, he will hop a plane back to his native China for a job in management consulting rather than seek employment in America.
Just a few years ago, such a career move would have been almost unthinkable. Most students reluctantly returned to China only because they couldn't land a position with a U.S. company that would sponsor them for a work visa.
But Mr. Xu represents a new breed of Chinese M.B.A. student, for whom China's booming economy is proving more alluring than a career in the West. "It is much more exciting right now to be in China, especially in the health-care area," says Mr. Xu, who plans to do life science and health-care consulting in the Shanghai office of Cambridge, Mass.-based Monitor Group. "Many things are changing rapidly, and I can really put my hands on some of the hot buttons and make my own mark on the country's economic development."
While many Chinese students at U.S. business schools still covet a visa that will allow them to work in America, career-service directors say a growing number are much more willing -- even eager -- to return to their homeland after graduation. "International companies have long tried to pitch this idea of going back to China where a student's language and cultural background is of great value to them, but until recently, it fell on deaf ears," says Paul Allaire, career-resource center director at the University at Buffalo School of Management.
Abby Scott, executive director of M.B.A. career services at the Haas School of Business at Berkeley, even sees some Chinese-American students, who were raised and educated in the U.S., moving to China. "They want to be part of all the interesting things happening over there," she says. "The safe way is to get your feet wet by joining a multinational, but a few gutsy students are trying to start something of their own."
At Stanford University, Virginia Roberson, the business school's international career adviser, finds entrepreneurial-minded students especially drawn to China. "It's like the Wild West and the gold rush to them," she says.
Students say they expect ever greater career opportunities and compensation as China's economic expansion rolls on. "I plan to go back to China after my studies because of the high demand for real-estate and infrastructure development," says Patricia Cheung, a first-year M.B.A. student at Berkeley who will be interning this summer at Deutsche Bank's real-estate asset management office in Hong Kong and working extensively in China. "I am passionate and patriotic about China and also feel that it is where I have a comparative advantage both in language and culture. I speak fluent Mandarin, Cantonese and English and have lived or worked in many Asian countries."
Indeed, U.S. and European companies consider many Chinese M.B.A. graduates ideal managers because of their knowledge of languages and business customs. They also have studied the ways of Western companies in business school so they can relate well to their employer's management style.
"Chinese students are more valuable back in their home country where they can charge a premium for their expertise," says Mark Wilkins, president of Stampede, who last year hired a Chinese graduate from the University at Buffalo to represent the distributor of electronic products in Shenzhen, China. "We needed his knowledge of the country and language because doing business in China is all about relationships."
Johnson & Johnson, which has had business operations in China from more than two decades, also is finding it easier to recruit Chinese nationals and has already hired 13 this school year for its pharmaceutical and medical-device businesses. Irene DeNigris, director of global university recruitment, seeks M.B.A. graduates who have acquired both general-management skills and the ability to work in cross-cultural teams in business school.
"Salaries are much better than five years ago" in China, she says, but she acknowledges that student-loan repayment still poses a financial challenge for some M.B.A. graduates there. J&J and other companies offer bonuses, housing allowances and other incentives to help ease the loan burden.
Some Chinese students still prefer to spend at least a year or two working in the U.S., both to repay some of their education debt from their higher income and to learn about Western business practices firsthand. Zhou Yu, an M.B.A. and computational finance student at Carnegie Mellon University, has accepted a job in fixed-income strategy at Citigroup because he believes some experience in New York should make him "more marketable." But in a few years, he and his wife hope to return to their families in Beijing.
Likewise, Qin Yu, an M.B.A. student at Ohio State University, plans to start with Intel as a senior financial analyst in the U.S. before heading back to China as a manager for the chip maker. "Most major U.S. companies have an operation in China now, so going back to China is not so bad," he says. "But before I go, I need to work in America to better understand the business culture. Academic experience alone is not sufficient."
Tech Flocks To Shanghai
March 14th, 2007HONG KONG - Lured by the vast size of China’s domestic market and its lower labor costs, plus a raft of corporate tax breaks, foreign technology companies are setting up shop in Shanghai in droves.
According to a report from Russell Reynolds Associates based on Shanghai government statistics, 144 foreign companies now have their Asia-Pacific headquarters in Shanghai, 48 of which established operations there only in the last year.
Alcatel (nyse: ALA - news - people ) was the first major multinational to make the move in 2001; now there are 11 in Shanghai.
This list includes AlliedSignal, Delphi (nyse: DPH - news - people ), FedEx (nyse: FDX - news - people ), General Electric (nyse: GE - news - people ), General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ) , Goodyear Tire, IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ) , Johnson & Johnson (nyse: JNJ - news - people ), Kodak (nyse: EK - news - people ), Rhodia (nyse: RHA - news - people ), Roche and Sharpe.
Russell Reynolds said 15% of the top 50 U.S. tech companies now have their Asia-Pacific headquarters in Shanghai, compared to 40% in Singapore, the city dubbed “Asia for beginners,” and 20% in Hong Kong.
Of the top 50 European technology companies, the executive search firm said 14% have their regional headquarters in Shanghai, 50% are in Singapore and 4% are in Hong Kong.
Beyond the tax breaks, low manufacturing costs and the desire to have executives on the ground in what many believe will soon be one of the most lucrative markets in the world, the report said one of the top reasons companies set up regional HQs in Shanghai is to make a political statement to the Chinese government.
The negatives of operating out of Shanghai include a lack of experienced talent at the executive level and the high cost of expatriate housing and schooling, often higher than comparable cost in Singapore.
Shu-Ching Jean Chen, Forbes
Wal-Mart Unveils Plans To Score Electronics On Environmental Sustainability
March 14th, 2007Wal-Mart has released criteria that will be part of a scorecard used to evaluate consumer electronics suppliers on the environmental sustainability of their products.
Starting in 2008, Wal-Mart will ask suppliers around the world to fill out the scorecard and buyers will have the option to use the scorecard results to influence purchasing decisions. The announcement reflects the larger company strategy to sell products that sustain natural resources and minimize impact on the environment.
"Wal-Mart believes that this scorecard will move electronics in the right direction¡ªa sustainable direction," said Ross Farnsworth, divisional merchandise manager of home electronics at Wal-Mart during his speech at the 'Take It Back' conference in the United States. "The scorecard encourages improvements that are good for business as well as for the environment, reflecting Wal-Mart's view that being a profitable and efficient business goes hand-in-hand with being a good steward to the environment."
Next year, Wal-Mart will ask electronics suppliers to fill out a scorecard that will assess the sustainability of their product. The scorecard will evaluate electronics on energy efficiency, durability, upgradability, end-of-life solutions, and the size of the package containing the product. Products will also be evaluated on their ability to use innovative materials that reduce the amount of hazardous substances, such as lead and cadmium, contained in the product. The end result is a score that shows suppliers where improvements can be made and allows Wal-Mart to evaluate the environmental sustainability of the product.
"Many electronics contain hazardous materials and are disposed of improperly. The scorecard issues a better score to those suppliers who build products with fewer hazardous materials and offer electronics recycling opportunities to customers," added Farnsworth.
Some suppliers are already integrating the metrics into their products. Currently, many of the computers and televisions sold at Wal-Mart are compliant with the Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) standards, including the popular Toshiba Satellite A55 laptop.
To encourage suppliers to start implementing the scorecard metrics into their products now, Wal-Mart is co-sponsoring an innovative design contest with the Green Electronics Council. Suppliers are encouraged to submit a consumer electronics product that puts the scorecard metrics into practice. The winner's product will be carried in Wal-Mart stores throughout the nation.
As suppliers are encouraged to become more sustainable, Wal-Mart is continuing with its own sustainability initiatives in its Electronics Network. In February, Wal-Mart co-hosted a series of electronic waste 'Take Back' days. Together with Hewlett-Packard and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Wal-Mart collected more than 140,000 pounds of old electronics for recycling from residents in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. In addition to the Take Back days, Wal-Mart offers year-round in-store recycling of cell phones and ink cartridges and encourages customers to buy energy efficient products.
International forum
March 13th, 2007A MEMBER of the World Bank Technical Assistance team in China, Patrick Dixon, will join other international business leaders and economists on May 28 at Shanghai Marriott Hotel Hongqiao, looking into the future trends and their impact on investors and business in China.
Recruiting on Asian Job Boards
March 13th, 2007With Internet access spreading across Asia, employers can tap a growing array of online sites for sourcing candidates.
By Fay Hansen
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Vault.com is a well-established hunting ground for job candidates looking for U.S. job postings and inside information on employers. Recruiters post 500,000 openings a month on the site¡¯s job board and monitor the message boards to track candidate and employee postings about their company.
Vault analyzed its traffic data in 2005 and discovered that many of the users on its U.S. site were job seekers in Asia looking for career information and insider perspectives on U.S multinationals. To meet this obvious need, Vault launched its Asia site a year ago. Vault Asia now averages more than 200,000 unique visitors a month and posts jobs for employers across Asia.
Recruiters and job seekers can now find detailed information on the interview process for a technician at Ikea in Shenzhen, China, or the signing bonus for engineers at Qualcomm in Hyderabad, India. New hires freely report their experiences with the recruiting process and salary offers at major companies.
This year, Vault will break up the Vault Asia site into targeted sites for individual countries, with new sites for India, China and South Korea going live in the first quarter of 2007.
"Hiring is through the roof in Asia, particularly in China and India," says Edward Shen, general manager of Vault Asia.
Vault is part of the boom in career sites and job boards that is sweeping Asia. Internet recruiting has become a primary recruiting method in China and India, where economic growth is fueling nonstop hiring across all industries.
Recruiters are posting on the sites as soon as they appear. On January 11, NewChinaCareer.com went live. One month later, postings on the site for jobs in China included 296 positions at Microsoft, 320 at IBM and 492 at GE. Recruiters are using the site to source candidates with fluency in English for jobs in all the major cities in mainland China plus Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.
Growing access
Job growth is explosive across Asia. China¡¯s major cities generated 12 million new jobs in 2006, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China. GDP growth in China hit 10.7 percent in 2006, a full point above expectations.
India reported GDP growth of 9.2 percent for 2006 and surpassed South Korea to become Asia¡¯s third-largest economy, after Japan and China. Job growth is soaring at both foreign and Indian multinationals.
"Accenture is hiring 500 people a month in Bangalore alone," Shen says.
This volume of hiring is possible only when sourcing is fully automated through employment sites. The major players are job boards such as ChinaHR.com, which posts nearly 1 million jobs each day and offers 10 million registered job seekers. ChinaHR, the oldest employment site in China, sold a 40 percent stake in the site to Monster.com in 2005.
Recruit.net, a fully trilingual job search engine based in Hong Kong, posts 2 million jobs a month in English, Chinese and Japanese for positions in China, Japan, Australia, India and Singapore.
"Throughout Asia, the major job sites are becoming very important parts of the culture of each country," Shen says. "They have a major presence through advertising."
The number of Internet users in Asia is approaching 400 million, up 241 percent from 2000, according to Internet World. Although the Asian Internet penetration rate is only 10.5 percent overall, penetration in South Korea, Singapore and Japan is roughly equivalent to the U.S. rate of 69.6 percent.
China had 137 million Internet users by the end of 2006, up 23 percent from 2005, according to the China Internet Information Center. In Beijing and Shanghai, penetration is approaching 40 percent; in Hong Kong, it is 68.2 percent.
"In India and China, Internet use among the younger generation is at the same level as in the United States," Shen reports. "Our surveys of Vault¡¯s Asian members show that they are starved for information about careers and employers. The focus on careers among recent graduates is greater than what we see in the United States."
Rapid growth and high turnover drive constant recruiting. "Young professionals in China will change jobs two or three times a year and leave a company for a small salary increase at another company," Shen says.
Private-sector wages in China rose 11.4 percent for the year ending in the third quarter of 2006, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China.
High demand is balanced by a high supply. Vault¡¯s recruiting contacts in China and India report that the supply of candidates is strong and that many companies say they have too many applicants.
"InfoSys in India had 1.3 million applicants in 2006, with a large portion of this coming in through the company¡¯s Web site," Shen notes. "Young professionals are focused on brands, so a company like InfoSys receives many r¨¦sum¨¦s."
In China, multinationals and top domestic companies are looking for specific skills from native Chinese with English-language skills, so the challenge is to identify the right people, Shen says. Multinationals recruiting for professional positions on local job boards receive an extraordinarily large volume of responses and need to be prepared to target individuals.
Global partnerships
The online recruitment market in Asia is still far behind that of the United States, according to Maneck Mohan, director of Recruit.net. In Recruit.net¡¯s markets, Australia is the most mature and China the least developed in the transition from traditional offline media job postings to online postings.
"In the United States, 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies now accept only online job applications," Mohan says. "For the Asia 500, this number is just below 25 percent, and we expect it to reach 40 percent by the end of 2008."
Because the site drives targeted job seeker traffic to the job listings on the company¡¯s Web site, all information flows directly into the employer¡¯s application tracking system.
Companies that use Recruit.net¡¯s premium services can tap the site¡¯s pay-per-click system. The companies define their own budget and then only pay for job seekers that click through to their job listings instead of paying for each posting.
Recruit.net also offers job-seeker analytics to measure the effectiveness of job advertisements and to collect information on job seeker behavior.
"For example, companies can track the keywords that job seekers used to find their job, how many times the job was displayed and the percentage of displays that resulted in a job seeker click-through," Mohan reports.
The jobs are also syndicated across a network of partner sites and distributed to niche sites, forums and blogs.
"This dramatically increases the reach and visibility of the jobs to a passive, highly targeted job seeker audience," Mohan says.
In November 2006, Recruit.net entered into a partnership with the U.S.-based DirectEmployers Association, which maintains JobCentral.com, an employer-owned search engine. Many of DirectEmployers¡¯ members are large U.S. multinationals. Jobs posted on either of the two sites now automatically appear on both.
"U.S. employers with operations in Asia are the primary users," says Bill Warren, CEO of DirectEmployers. "It gives them another outlet and a much more cost-effective way to reach job seekers in Asian locations." More than 140 U.S. employers are now using the Recruit.net site for posting jobs at their Asian locations.
The flat membership fee of $12,500 a year for DirectEmployers companies includes international job postings. Non-member companies can post a position for $25.
Job seekers who are interested in a job posted on JobCentral.com are automatically routed to the company¡¯s Web site, so DirectEmployers does not have information on the final outcome for candidates or employers.
"But the member company renewal rate is 95 percent, indicating a high level of satisfaction with the offerings," Warren says.
Warren believes that the rapid expansion of global recruiting conducted through the Internet will continue.
"Over the next few years, we¡¯ll see more of the upward spiral in usage," he says. He notes that both Monster and CareerBuilder are pushing for an international presence. The number of employment Web sites stands at 40,000 worldwide, according to the International Association of Employment Web Sites.
"Also, international job listings will become a commodity as they are now becoming in the U.S, with no charge for the listings and all revenues for the site driven by advertising," Warren says. "We see this approach now with the rise of Google, which will have a huge impact on Internet recruiting over the next few years. Developments overseas lag three to four years behind the U.S."
The technology is in place for global recruiting and true workforce mobility, but it¡¯s difficult to project political developments with respect to visa regulations, Warren says. With Asian multinationals now investing heavily in the U.S. and Europe, however, the push for simultaneous job postings across all regions will accelerate.
As Asian multinationals continue their cross-border merger-and-acquisition activities and buy up more U.S.-based companies, job postings will flow out from the Asian firms and create new opportunities for global job boards and for recruiters working in the U.S. and abroad.
Lenovo Encourages More Female Engineers
March 12th, 2007Lenovo has announced its sponsorship of the "Global Marathon For, By and About Women in Engineering," a live webcast event that will be broadcast to a worldwide audience on March 22.
Lenovo also pledged its multi-year support for the National Engineers Week Foundation and the Global Marathon. This third annual Global Marathon will provide a global audience of K-12 and college students, teachers, counselors, parents and professional women engineers access to top women engineers in leading institutions and industries around the world.
Lenovo will kick off the live Global Marathon from its executive headquarters near Raleigh, North Carolina in the United States at noon EST and will feature Fran O'Sullivan, senior vice president of the Lenovo Product Group, and Dr. Sally Ride, former astronaut and the first American woman in space.
"Lenovo is focused on cultivating a diverse and talented pipeline of engineers. By reaching students early, we can help them overcome the subtle social obstacles that often turn school-age girls away from technical professions," said O'Sullivan. "This is our way of inspiring the next generation of women engineers by exposing them to a wide showcase of role models who have built distinguished careers in technical fields."
O'Sullivan and Dr. Ride will also lead a Q&A session at Lenovo with students from North Carolina schools during the live Global Marathon webcast.
Lenovo's global engineering team will also participate in the Global Marathon, giving presentations from countries including China and Japan. Over the course of 24 hours, various leaders from the engineering field around the world will hold conversations through webcasts, Internet chats and conference calls in an effort to encourage girls to pursue engineering careers