Sessions with Professor Young - 6

Sessions with Professor Young - 6

by Team F (Darryl, Meshantha, Urwashi, Maribeth, Marilyn)

Professor Leslie Young presentation on east versus west industrial growth (namely China versus the United States of American) was incredibly intuitive for our MBA group.

We learned China's limited land space, as opposed to most western countries (Prof. Young used an example of fish in a pond, with ducks above water and fruit vines growing over the ducks) has influenced China's growth by the need to capitalise on labour to support it's industrialisation in other areas, such as textiles and manufacturing.

One of the most interesting facts our group took away from the session today was that while the west have vastly dispersed land ownership (which supports and finances small business and infrastructure, like railroads), the east uses state resources, allocated through hierarchical planning for regional growth.

Officials are promoted based on GDP growth for their region (which can create corruption), but Chinese are producing more complex products (using a multitude of skills) and climbing the ladder of their share of the export market.

China has moved from just assembling consumer items to making everything involved in the supply chain to make them (reinvesting money back into the industry).

It is no longer reliant on foreign investor firms for its export industrialisation and Chinese businesses are able to expand their business footprint due to railway and airline technology.