USA Today (January 21)
While the manifold challenges we face today “may be obvious, how to resolve them is less clear. In the past you would have looked in the boardrooms or parliaments of the world for solutions.” Today, as the face and style of leadership morphs, “solutions can be found in the minds of a new generation of leaders who have realized that the nature of leadership and power are changing.”
Tags: Boardrooms, Challenges, Leadership, Parliaments, Power, Solutions
Financial Times (March 4)
The Chinese Government appears to be getting serious about tackling air pollution. “The danger is that the leadership of the Communist party will conclude that it needs fast growth more than it needs clean air, clean soil and clean rivers. That would be a mistake.”
Tags: Air pollution, China, Clean air, Clean rivers, Clean soil, Communist party, Government, Growth, Leadership
Wall Street Journal (February 16, 2014)
“It’s getting ugly in Venezuela.” The economy is crumbling with inflation north of 56% and wide-spread shortages, which have caused some factories to close. Amid growing protests, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is consolidating power using deaths at recent protests “to justify a government crackdown on growing civic unrest directed at his leadership and a deteriorating economy.” A natural “strongman,” President Maduro is now following “the Cuban model.”
Tags: Crackdown, Cuba, Economy, Inflation, Leadership, Nicolas Maduro, Protests, Shortages, Strongman, Unrest, Venezuela
Wall Street Journal (August 22)
Bo Xilai, the former political powerhouse of Chonqing, is approaching trial. He has already “undermined three core claims of the Communist Party. First, that the national leadership is unified. Second, that the process of selecting the next generation of leaders is institutionalized. And finally that open struggle for power like that seen during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution can never happen again.”
Financial Times (July 25)
“Since taking office in the spring, the new Chinese leadership knew it had to boost a slowing economy, while, at the same time, rebalancing it away from state-driven investment. Some of the measures included in the ‘mini-stimulus’ Beijing announced on Wednesday strike this difficult balance.” By cutting red tape for exporters and taxes for small companies, the package may succeed in letting “hundreds of small firms bloom.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Economy, Exporters, Leadership, Rebalancing, Slowing, Stimulus, Taxes
New York Times (July 23)
“To keep commerce going with China, Japan’s most important Asian trading partner, Mr. Abe has to stop rubbing raw the wounds of World War II. That includes not visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, where war criminals from that conflict are honored. Nor should his government divert budget resources into military muscle flexing. Pushing into these politically contentious areas would erode the economic progress and promise of stable political leadership Mr. Abe has just worked so hard to achieve.”
Tags: Abe, Budget, China, Commerce, Conflict, Criminals, Government, Japan, Leadership, Military, Progress, Trading partner, World War II, Yasukuni
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
