Many Foreign Investment Enterprises (FIEs) are now finding that the biggest obstacle to their growth in China is the acute shortage of high quality and experienced management. Foreign direct investment has soared in recent years and with it has the demand for quality management. As established businesses have grown, the need for new and far more complex management roles has emerged, which previously hardly existed in China's old state run enterprises.
Furthermore the rapid rise in the economy has resulted in a workforce with career aspirations and attitudes that have been forged solely from the experience of knowing a booming market. Job-hopping has become commonplace. With traditional local education still largely focused on academic knowledge to real life business situations, there is an acute shortage of practically skilled young people joining the workplace.