Middle men
Human resources (HR) consultancies predict that within the next two years, about a quarter of the managers working for multinationals in China will be Chinese returnees with experience in developed foreign markets.

Land-use rights & wrongs
Visitors to China, even frequent ones, marvel at the construction boom in the country's largest and even relatively remote cities. The surprise is not only over the scale of expansion; some of the disbelief has more to do with the innovative and occasionally outrageous architectural designs on display. There is a nagging concern behind all this rapid development, however. How can individuals and companies inject so much capital into a market where the government owns all of the land?

Lessons shared
The celebratory mood at City University of Seattle's (CTU) graduation ceremony last June was almost infectious. When a student's name was announced, a burst of applause would erupt from their little pocket of family and friends in the audience.

Case study
US-based Industrials Corp had big plans for the Chinese market. It wanted its China business to be worth U$500 million by 2008, up from US$150 million now. It established a local subsidiary and pledged it would hire a Chinese chief financial officer (CFO) with financial experience, a strong strategic business perspective, solid industry knowledge, and the ability to co-operate with Industrial Corp's various divisions.