Reader's question:  

Mr Ghemawat notes that company bosses lead the pack when it comes to overestimating the extent of globalisation.

Could you explain "lead the pack"?

My comments:

Pack refers to a group of animals hunting together. Usually there's an alpha male, the dominant male, leading each pack. The alpha male is, in human terms, the leader.

Here, company bosses are described as leading the pack, leading the group of people who overestimate the extent of globalization, whatever that means.

Metaphorically speaking of course, but the metaphor is appropriate if you consider corporations as money-thirsty monsters, which they actually are. In which case company bosses would be nothing less than blood-thirsty hounds leading their pack, venturing out to conquer the so-called first, second, third world and beyond, baying for profit.

And more profit.

Leading to, or rather leaving disastrous ecological consequences in their behind.

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Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發布一切違反國家現行法律法規的內容。

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.