Economist (March 17)
“Late this year, the world’s two biggest powers will each choose their leaders. The way America does it looks messy and inefficient. China’s bureaucratic method, by contrast, is designed to provide a smooth transition and a continuity of policy.” The Chinese process can be “vicious,” though it’s typically hidden from the public. “The sacking on March 15th of Bo Xilai as party chief of the south-western region of Chongqing provided a rare glimpse…. Mr Bo had seemed destined for the zenith of power in China…. His downfall represents the biggest public rift in China’s leadership for two decades.”“Late this year, the world’s two biggest powers will each choose their leaders. The way America does it looks messy and inefficient. China’s bureaucratic method, by contrast, is designed to provide a smooth transition and a continuity of policy.” The Chinese process can be “vicious,” though it’s typically hidden from the public. “The sacking on March 15th of Bo Xilai as party chief of the south-western region of Chongqing provided a rare glimpse…. Mr Bo had seemed destined for the zenith of power in China…. His downfall represents the biggest public rift in China’s leadership for two decades.”
Tags: Bo Xilai, China, Leadership, Rift, Selection process, Smooth, U.S.
Washington Post (December 2)
“The health of the world economy, including our own, increasingly depends on the vision and decisiveness of a cautious German leader.” The European monetary union was poorly constructed. Either “Europe will dramatically strengthen its fiscal and political union or it will break into pieces. In recognizing this imperative, the Germans are right. Now they must also be decisive, creative and unifying.”
The Economist (October 8)
The solution to Europe’s crisis is fairly obvious, but there is one problem. The solution “depends on the Europeans to carry it out. The debt crisis has been running for 18 months now, and the only way that euro-zone leaders have dazzled is through sheer incompetence.”
Tags: Crisis, Debt, Europe, Incompetence, Leadership
The Boston Globe (August 26)
Steve Jobs is stepping down from Apple. The Boston Globe believes his visionary leadership provides a model for U.S. companies. “As US companies confront competitors around the world, Jobs offers a useful lesson—a focus on short-term matters is much less important than a vision for the future and the confidence to bet big on it.”
Tags: Apple, Leadership, Steve Jobs, Vision
New York Times (June 29)
The ongoing crisis in Greece has exposed a deeper problem in Europe. “There are no European leaders, just a German chancellor, a French president, an Italian prime minister and others who … never look much beyond their local political interests.”
Tags: Crisis, Europe, Greece, Leadership
