Knowledge Network: Podcasts

From donkeys to bullet trains: China’s four miraculous transformations

When Thunderbird Professor Mary Teagarden, Ph.D., arrived in China as a business consultant and researcher in 1978, car factories still relied on donkey power. “The donkeys would move the engines around to different stations to pick up buckets of tool and parts,” she says. “It was primitive at best.” She had to schedule an appointment two days in advance to make an overseas telephone call. And she had to pass through bureaucratic hurdles to use the library. “I had to write a paper about why I needed to use a book,” she says. Conditions have changed dramatically in the 33 years since then. In this podcast, recorded Aug. 5, 2011, Teagarden describes miraculous transformations she has witnessed in four areas: Manufacturing, telecommunications, information access and infrastructure. Learn more Oct. 4, 2011, when Teagarden speaks at the Houston Professional Speaker Series in Texas. Audio: China’s Four Miraculous Transformations (6:13)