Asia

It can easily appear as if China can make anything. Yet it makes goods not only at low cost, but now also of high quality, and this constitutes a particularly Chinese brand of innovation that enables China increasingly to shake up global markets.

As a human capital consultant who has been working in Japan for nearly two decades, I have become increasingly concerned about Japan’s shortage of global leaders. This “global leadership deficit” will almost certainly impair Japan’s ability to compete in the global marketplace of the 21st century.

A civil fraud lawsuit recently filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission against the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. suggests the storied Wall St. firm played favorites by hawking a sophisticated investment security on behalf of a major hedge fund-without disclosing to investors that the same hedge fund not only designed the instrument but also had an interest in seeing it fail.

Executives all over the world have had to adjust to a new reality in the face of the current financial crisis, the most severe global recession in nearly 80 years. Within a period of a few short months, many have gone from experiencing boom times to tough times - we call this challenging transition “Managing Against the Wind.”