The woman helping to build the new China By Lifen Zhang / Published: February 7 2010 23:02
The CV for Zhang Xin SOHO:
Education Attended seven elementary schools in China. Bachelor of Arts in Economics, Sussex University. Master of Arts in Development Economics, Cambridge University.
Career Labourer at a garment factory and electronics plant in Hong Kong from age 14. Analyst at Goldman Sachs and Travelers Group respectively in 1993-95. Returned to Beijing to start Soho China with husband Pan Shiyi in 1995.
A European computer visionary By Richard Milne / Published: February 9 2010 22:13
He recalls that, naively, they expect ed to break even within six months – in fact, it took more than three years. “In the first three to four years you are close to bankruptcy all the time. For one reason or other, [a new] order would always arrive,” he says.
How Toyota engineered its own downfall By David Pilling / Published: February 10 2010 20:29
Weirdly, Akio Toyoda, scion of the Toyota family, summed it up rather well. “Believe me, Toyota’s car is safety,” the chief executive of Japan’s most iconic company said. “But we will try to increase our product better.”
Private bank chiefs scramble to exploit Asia's growth potential By Sundeep Tucker and Robert Cookson in Hong Kong / Published: February 12 2010 02:00
The Asia-Pacific region has more than 2.4m dollar millionaires with combined wealth of $7,400bn, according to the latest data from Merrill Lynch and Capgemini. The region is forecast to overtake North America as the world's largest pool of wealth by 2013.