Steve Carter, CEO of Asia-Pacific, Morgan McKinley

Growing up in suburban Sydney the rest of the world literally seemed a million miles away and we were encouraged to consider Australia as the “lucky country” so why go anywhere else. My earliest impressions of the “big bad world” came from American and British TV, Greek and Italian kids I went to school with and a monthly trip to the local Chinese restaurant.

Out of all of these China was the most exotic – it was communist, there was the Great Wall and every toy I owned was “Made In China”. Even then it was obviously a budding industrial powerhouse, “sneaking up” on the unsuspecting West but little did I think that 30 years on I would spend most of my working week in Asia and that the world would spend most of its time gazing in amazement at China.

With its massive population and huge domestic consumption China is growing (fast) in spite of the West’s trials and tribulations of currency disasters, political shakeups, global financial crises and volcanic ash clouds. The demand for skilled professionals is just as vast with Chinese and international corporates all looking to share in the spoils but there is an irony about those professionals that hold all the cards. Back in my school days we had a small but increasingly diverse group of kids and cultures all of whom we (wrongly) seemed to consider as “disadvantaged” in one way or another but in 2010 the children of those “disadvantaged foreign kids”,  particularly the ABC’s (American/Australian Born Chinese) and BBC’s (British Born Chinese), are the hottest ticket in town. Their English/Chinese language skills, ability to think cross culturally and identify with western practices is helping provide China with a bridge to the rest of the world. Sure China produces its own outstanding professionals but over the past 30 years they have been incubating talent in the West just for this very moment when they can drive the economic Ferrari into the spotlight.

If only I had known then what I know now! When my school taught us basic French and German (why in Australia?), why didn’t they teach us Chinese so we could all share in this economic event? Today, lots of things under the Christmas tree are still made in China but the one getting all the attention at the moment is the people, not necessarily made in China , but a product of China nonetheless!

China, Great Wal, industrial powerhouse, Made In China, Morgan McKinley