With China and Taiwan now full members of the World Trade Organization, companies face a growing set of new challenges that membership to this global body brings. Some of the "burning issues" facing our clients in Greater China today include how to plan for and manage global expansion, how to upgrade operations to make them competitive with world-class multinationals, and how to put in place the organizational structures and processes to drive growth and innovation.

　　While drawing on McKinsey's traditional strengths in strategy and organization, our work in this region increasingly calls upon other capabilities. For instance, China's state-owned enterprises are finding the need to rethink business processes as they transform into efficient, world-class competitors. Large manufacturers are finding that labor cost advantages are not enough to make up for inefficient operations, and are therefore seeking help on redesigning how they manufacture and distribute their products. Regulatory changes and a global slowdown in IT demand are forcing Taiwan's high tech and financial players to increasingly use mergers and acquisitions to build scale and acquire the skills and products they need to compete.