You raise an interesting point on the woods and women comment! Seriously, beyond intelligence and schooling there are personality traits, cultural attributes etc. that are more conducive to success in business, industry etc. EG: Germans immigrated to South America, say Brazil, and the areas where they settled have industry, strong local economies etc. compared to the rest of the country if I am not mistaken. This pattern has repeated itself over time all around the globe with other cultures. Even though Indians may be better educated, do they possess the entrepreneural spirit, the willingness to take risks and the traits, values etc. needed to organize and lead? The British are good examples of this adventourous, opportunistic spirit.
Went to a meeting once at a large cell phone company here. 30 Bangladeshi engineers attended, no Americans. They were quite, didn’t engage with us at all and were very shy. Could have been the language barrier, but I sensed that it was a bigger cultural issue. Were they British engineers, there would have likely been lively discussions, side conversations and relationship building going on. If I was looking for someone to captain a ship and guide it with initiative and confidence through rough seas, I would want an individual who was assertive and not prone to group-think.
Likewise, go to any major university and you will see that the Chinese students hang together, congregate in the libraries and generally (many exceptions of course) do not join clubs, assume leadership roles on campus or do much of anything except study. British, Australian and Nigerian, Carribean etc. engineering students will have dated Americans by graduation (the lucky ones!), developed social networks with Americans, gone to baseball games at Petco and possibly even joined a fraternity or soriety. I am making huge generaliztions here, but again, broadly applied they are very valid – just ask any college student. The Chinese student leaves with better grades, but does that necessarily mean that he will be better at global business?
