ABSTRACT
Peter Hanson, the Head of the Product Development Centre (PDC) of Hi Tech Systems in Shanghai had been in China for five months. He was the first person in the PDC when he arrived in Shanghai in April 2000. Product development is seen as key to the success of Hi Tech Systems. The responsibility for product development programs resides with the global business lines and the "platforms" such as Japanese user interface. For the assessment of applicants in China, Hi Tech Systems used "The Space Shuttle". The Space Shuttle was a game where the applicants worked together in a group with the objective of reaching an agreement on how to build a space shuttle. By observing the applicants involved in a problem-solving situation where they also interacted with each other, the observers could draw their own conclusions about the applicants. Recruitment and selection of local employees largely resembled practices used elsewhere in the global Hi Tech Systems organization.
