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Go to China, business guru advises

If Taiwan is a dynamic flea full of vitality, its "elephant" should be China, where it can find larger space to nurture and grow, renowned European management guru Charles Handy said in a speech Tuesday in Taipei.

Handy said he expects that markets across the Taiwan Strait will become integrated 10 years from now given that business and trade relations between the two sides are inextricably close.

If Taiwan loses the Chinese markets, it loses its competitiveness in the world in the new century, Handy said.

Handy expounded on his theory of the "elephant and flea" in the speech, terming independent workers in the new era as the flea and big business conglomerates as the elephant, and explaining the interactions between the two.

In his concept, an organization is an elephant and an individual is a flea.

He said that in future, this type of independent work will become the most coveted career style worldwide.

He forecast that in the foreseeable future, the number of full-time workers will make up less than half of the entire work force worldwide.

In the new era, he argued, the elephant and the flea rely on each other for their existence.

The independent worker, via professional contract, offers his or her innovative ideas and know-how to the elephant or big conglomerate, while maintaining his or her independent space and freedom.

New "elephants" are better aware of how to provide the individuals with greater room to give free reign to their abilities, Handy said, adding that the formula of excessive management control is no longer suitable.
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