Opportunity beckons

Goodwin says the small- to medium-sized Chinese firms should now take the opportunity to grab whatever talents they can get. Antal has over 600 clients in China and of these 35 percent are local companies.

Chinese companies that acquire foreign companies could also encounter talent challenges like when Lenovo took over the PC business of IBM.

But Goodwin says, such problems can be solved more easily. "In the next six months, when Chinese companies enter overseas markets, they will see a veritable talent pool of directors, managers and even CEOs from western companies to choose from due to the recession. The Chinese firms can hire them for overseas development as they have better chances to take over struggling US companies," he says.

"If the financial crisis had not happened, the smaller companies would never have been able to compete with big corporations for top managers," Goodwin says. "Now is the best time for them to tap the market for talent."

The moot question, however, is how to retain the hired talent when the economy starts growing again. Goodwin feels this is not a major deterrent as the small companies can also grow. "Small firms would become mid-sized and they in turn will become big.

The talent hired by small and mid-sized companies would also scale up the ladder in tandem with the firms and hence remain loyal to their employers.

"As long as the talent feels satisfied with their job and get paid well there is no reason for them to leave for bigger companies," says Goodwin.

He adds that it would be prudent for companies that are planning to enter the Chinese market to hire talent locally.

"With US companies laying off people, it would be the right time for other foreign firms to hire people from the Chinese talent market," says Goodwin. He cites the example of myweather.com, a meteorologic solution company that is planning to hire local talent for its business expansion.

(China Daily December 29, 2008)