Tony Blair recently spoke at Yale’s2008 Class Day. He noted that “for the first time in many centuries, power is moving East. China and India each have populations roughly double those of America and Europe combined. In the next two decades, these two countries together will undergo industrialisation four times the size of the USA’s and at five times the speed.”

For those of us who work in global organizations– and that’s nearly everyone– those figures are stunning.  Think about the implications of 4x the size and 5x the speed of what’s occuring in America right now.  Bring those numbers down closer to home– 5x the speed of your company, your department, your job. 

Dominic Barton wrote in the McKinsey Quartely “Whether or not you do business in China, you can’t ignore it. Everyone knows the superlatives: how it consumes a huge percentage of global resources—25 percent of the world’s steel and 50 percent of the world’s cement, for example; how it is home to some of the largest companies on Earth, four of which cracked the most recent Fortune Global 500 list; how its economy will soon rival those of leading countries such as France and the United Kingdom.”

Executives around the world expect competition from Chinese companies to increase, mainly because of their low production costs, yet surprisingly few are acting to meet the threat, a McKinsey survey shows. A separate survey of executives based in China reveals widespread global ambitions.

So if those are all the superlatives, what are the obstacles?  What do we as talent strategists need to understand to compete and partner in a global economy?  Part II of this blog will focus on Eastern business, social and generational problems– but in the meantime– what are you and your company doing to understand increasing global competition and partnerships?