change, and empowering others are crucial
for aligning the workforce through the chaos
of adding new models and technology.
Gap: Innovation. Chinese leaders are
trying to move from imitation of technology to creating their own technology, which
will be a critical component of China 2025.
One strategy is to buy companies in North
America and learn more about technology
(and culture) on site. No matter the strategy,
our assessment findings reveal that Chinese
leaders score lower on competencies relat-ing to innovation, such as the red circled
competencies in Figure 1 below (
entrepre-neurialism, financial acumen, establishing
strategic direction, and building organizational talent).
How Are U. S. Leaders So Creative?
Our conversations seemed to rein- force these findings. Often Chinese leaders would ask how U.S. lead-
ers are so creative. Or, astute Chinese leaders
would point out that Chinese students and
leaders, obsessed with success, will respond
to problems and questions as if they are tak-
ing a test; that is, they seem to think there is a
definite, clear cut, and correct answer to be
applied to the problem and have difficulty fig-
uring out a problem situation when there is
no readily emerging correct answer.
On the positive side, this tends to mean that
Chinese leaders are very fast learners and can
assimilate information quickly, which will be
key strengths for the transformation. However, additional entrepreneurial, financial
acumen, and creative problem solving skills
and abilities, along with the western culture
notion of failure, are not only accepted, but
expected, keys to innovative problem solving
that China often lacks.
By the end of our trip, we were impressed
with the understanding and admired the
plans connected to M4.0 that we saw, causing us to remember an analogy from Deng
Xiaoping. Deng Xiaoping once equated
China’s economic progress to crossing a river,
stepping on each stone and feeling the way
across to the other side, the other side being
the world’s economic leader.
It appears not only is China well on its
way to becoming the world’s top economic
power with its China 2025 initiative (China’s
economy is expected to be the largest economy in the next few years), it is crossing with
unimaginable speed, skipping stones along
the way that slow others down but may be
vital to long-term sustainability. What has
become clear to us is that the west cannot underestimate the power of the Chinese people.
Because the Chinese are clearly energized by
M4.0, many are aggressively aligning their
workforce to it. Are we? M
MANUFACTURING
LEADERSHIP JOURNAL
www.ManufacturingLeadershipCommunity.com
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Chinese people have a strong
sense of urgency about industrial
progress, and are willing to work
every day of the week.