Hamid Bilgari, Vice Chairman of Citicorp, the strategic arm of Citigroup, is a leader in international investment banking.

Bilgari says that pragmatism and patience are the dominant qualities exhibited by cultures facing major change, such as the leadership transition at the top of the Chinese Communist Party.

“Cultures that have existed for thousands of years, be they Chinese, or Indian or Persian or Egyptian, basically operate on a much different scale. They believe that history is on their side,” Bilgari says.

“There’s a deliberate pace to change, and an expectation of dramatic change is just unrealistic. The Chinese have been successful in taking advantage of the changes that have happened around them by focusing very specifically on their Five Year Plans over an extended period of time to dramatically grow over the last thirty years.”