Nearly two in three entrepreneurs in China took on management roles in companies before they started their own businesses, according to a report released in March by LinkedIn, a US-based professional networking website.

The report, which is based on last year's user data from the Chinese mainland, showed that 30 percent of the entrepreneurs held director-level leadership roles, 20 percent were managers and 10 percent used to hold vice-president appointments.

Most of these people defined themselves as individuals with core abilities such as leadership, project management and business development, said the report.

"This group of people is the backbone of their enterprises. They have excellent personal skills, rich resources in the workplace and stable personal connections, which grant them the best opportunities to start their own business plans," said Huang Lei, director of public relations of LinkedIn China.

Between February 2016 and February 2017, LinkedIn initiated an online job fair featuring C-suite positions at startups. It said such companies were appealing to job seekers as each position received an average of nearly 40 applications.

Another recent survey report by Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), an international nonprofit organization based in the United States, showed that nearly half of the Chinese workers looking to be enrolled in graduate management education (GME) courses were aged between 35 and 45.

The Prospective Students Survey and Alumni Perspective Survey by GMAC, which polled more than 1,400 people in the Chinese mainland, found that most of these people held at least middle management positions within their organization.

Greater China Regional Director for GMAC Yolanda Kwok said she anticipated a significant growth in the number of GME pursuers who have entrepreneurial plans but need the skills to turn their ideas into reality.

"We'll witness the number of such candidates increasing in the next few years in China as the government heavily encourages entrepreneurship," she said.

Business schools in the country have been offering specialized programs in this field. More than 85 percent of business courses offer knowledge in business and roughly 83 percent teaches students how to develop business ideas and write business plans, according to the survey.

The LinkedIn report also showed that second-tier cities, such as Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, the home of e-commerce giant Alibaba, as well as Chengdu in Sichuan, have the fastest growing number of entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, Beijing and Shanghai attracted more than 60 percent of talents with business ideas last year.

"The bubble from areas where the entrepreneurial enthusiasm is excessively high is overflowing to some other regions, such as the middle and western ones," said Huang.

(China Daily USA?04/07/2017 page9)