Taicang, October 4, 2009: Learning in a globalized economy – a lesson from China
In past years, we have seen traditional companies close their production facilities in Europe overnight, lay off their employees and invest in new sites – mostly in Asia. For the most part, such moves have been driven by lower costs of labour. China has long been targeted by investors primarily looking for cheap labour who could be hired for industrial mass production without any major preparation. Much has changed in China since then. For some time now, companies in China – foreign or domestic – have focused on value creation through high-tech products requiring highly skilled personnel. Jiansheng Duan is a 44 years old Chinese engineer who just became Managing Director of a precision engineering company in Taicang after working relentlessly on improving his skills, setting an example of looking all over the world for the best possible education. – Shepard Fox Communications helped research the success story on behalf of the Adecco Institute, and then produced the corresponding article, which was published by Business Watch Magazine.