The China Gambit

CIO Magazine has a career focused article on IT leadership in China and the opportunities that exist for western IT leadership types. It's pretty interesting in the IT landscape it paints of China. China is quite different, and for the western folks that make it there, it can be quite exciting. Internal IT departments in China are considered service departments, and not necessarily strategic to the business -- not unlike the view of IT in many established firms in North America. The local supporting infrastructure of third-party companies don't exist -- so bringing in hired guns to help in the short term just ain't going to be easy or cheap. In established Chinese companies, most of which came from state run enterprises, change doesn't come easy. The leadership is used to being in full control, and don't take to change easily -- so forget that upgrade.

Having said that however, it's probably a once-in-a-lifetime chance to play in such a dynamic and evolving economy. Not sure I'd want to deal with all of the pitfalls though. In many cases, China is still a developing country.