Updated: The Talent Behind ‘China Inc.’

Free Career Journal Link — new link for July 12

This article talks about Chinese manufacturing companies not in the context of cheap labor, but in the context of management skill. Most successful Chinese companies are the result of turning around formerly government owned (and inefficient) companies. As companies like Haier look to buy American brands like Maytag, they hope to use that management skill in turning around the American company.

A few other ideas jump out from the article:

1) Haier makes their larger refrigerators here in the U.S., I’m sure due to logistics and shipping costs. Here is an example of a Chinese company creating jobs in the U.S. and being smart about their global production locations.

2) “The CEOs of Haier, Wanxiang, and CIMC all started and spent their careers on the factory floor.” Now here’s a major difference between these companies and most U.S. firms. Most American executives come from finance or marketing — doesn’t that hamper our lean efforts, American CEO’s not understanding the shop floor?

About LeanBlog.org: Mark Graban is a consultant, author, and speaker in the “lean healthcare” methodology, focused on improving quality and patient safety, improving access, reducing costs, and fully engaging healthcare professionals. He is also the Chief Improvement Officer for KaiNexus.