Why use expatriates

Once the plant was established, he would be expected to transfer his knowledge to local professionals—and to learn from them, too. Together, they would be expected to generate innovative ideas. Instead, it operates 36 centers in 11 countries—from Finland to China to the United States. Senior executives scan their global workforce for engineers and designers who are likely to generate new ideas when combined into a team. The approach works well: Nokia continues to grab global market share by rapidly turning new ideas into successful commercial products, such as the Nokia series mobile telephones that were launched last year in Beijing and have quickly captured a leading position in markets around the world.

Other companies have more need to focus on the second reason for international assignments: to develop global leadership skills. Such intangibles come instead as a result of having spent more than one sustained period working abroad.

Indeed, the only way to change fundamentally how people think about doing business globally is by having them work abroad for several months at a time. Everyone has a mental map of the world—a set of ingrained assumptions about what people are like and how the world works.

But our maps may not be able to point us in the right direction when we try to use them in uncharted territory. Consider the case of a tall American businessman who, during a recent trip to Japan, dined at a traditional restaurant. Upon entering, he bumped his head on the doorjamb. The next day, the same thing happened. It was only on the third time that he remembered to duck. People on international assignments hit their heads on doorjambs many times over the years.

Eventually, they learn to duck—to expect that the world abroad will be different from the one they had imagined. Hard experience has rearranged their mental maps or, at the very least, expanded the boundaries on their maps. It is with such a broadened view of the world that global leaders are made. Stephen Burke arrived in France with the same mental map of the company as the senior managers at home.

He believed, for instance, that families and alcohol do not mix at Disney theme parks. A glass of wine with lunch was as French as a cheeseburger was American. He succeeded. Because of those and other changes, attendance and hotel occupancy soon skyrocketed, and EuroDisney posted its first operational profit.

After living in France, I came to look at the world quite differently. The two principal goals of international assignments—generation of knowledge and development of global leaders—are not mutually exclusive.

But it is unlikely that an international posting will allow a company to achieve both goals in every case or to an equal degree. What matters, however, is that executives explicitly know beforehand why they are sending a person overseas—and that the reason goes beyond an immediate business problem.

Just as important, it is critical that expats themselves know the rationale for their assignments. Are they being sent abroad to generate knowledge or to develop their leadership skills? At the effective companies we studied, this kind of information helps expats focus on the right objectives in the right measure.

For example, a communications company recently transferred one of its top lean-manufacturing experts from Asia to the United States. His task was to help managers understand and implement the practices that had been perfected in Singapore and Japan.

Knowing the main purpose of his posting, the expert was able to focus his energy on downloading his knowledge to other managers. Moreover, he did not build up unrealistic expectations that he would be promoted after returning home. Companies with foreign operations will always face unexpected crises from time to time. Just as managers often send people abroad for the wrong reasons, they frequently send the wrong people. Indeed, technical skill is frequently the main reason that people are selected for open posts.

But managers often send people who lack the ability to adjust to different customs, perspectives, and business practices. In other words, they send people who are capable but culturally illiterate.

After all, successfully navigating within your own business environment and culture does not guarantee that you can maneuver successfully in another one. We know, for instance, of a senior manager at a U. What was worse, the man was unwilling to change his way of doing business. How do you weed out people like the man who failed in Korea? The companies that manage expats successfully use a variety of tools to assess cultural sensitivity, from casual observation to formal testing.

Interestingly, however, almost all evaluate people early in their careers in order to eliminate some from the potential pool of expats and help others build cross-cultural skills. Although the companies differ in how they conduct their assessments, our research shows that they seek the following similar characteristics in their expats:.

To identify such people, the most effective companies in our research scanned their ranks for employees who were both enthusiastic and extroverted in conversation, and not afraid to try out their fractured French or talk with someone whose English was weak.

The tendency for many people posted overseas is to stick with a small circle of fellow expats. By contrast, successful global managers establish social ties to the local residents, from shopkeepers to government officials. There is no better source for insights into a local market and no better way to adjust to strange surroundings. But the expats who add the most value to their companies—by staying for the duration and being open to local market trends—are those who willingly experiment with different customs.

In India, such people eat dal and chapatis for lunch; in Brazil, they follow the fortunes of the local jai alai team. Expats with a cosmopolitan mind-set intuitively understand that different cultural norms have value and meaning to those who practice them.

Companies that send the right people abroad have identified individuals who respect diverse viewpoints; they live and let live. When expats negotiate with foreigners, the potential for conflict is much higher than it is when they are dealing with compatriots. Different cultures can hold radically different expectations about the way negotiations should be conducted. Thus a collaborative negotiation style, which can be important enough in business at home, becomes absolutely critical abroad.

Over the last five years, Jon Huntsman, Jr. During such trips, he takes the managers to local restaurants, shopping areas, and side streets and observes their behavior. Do they approach the strange and unusual sights, sounds, smells, and tastes with curiosity or do they look for the nearest Pizza Hut? Do they try to communicate with local shopkeepers or do they hustle back to the Hilton? They provide headquarters with accurate reports and are in a position to take remedial action if partners are not able to meet targets.

Expatriates also ensure that local partners comply with policies and procedures and quality and customer service standards.

Develop Management Talent Appointing employees to overseas assignments helps organizations develop their management skills and competencies. Expatriates learn to recognize and understand the diversity of local market conditions in different territories, giving them a broader perspective on marketing. They also develop the leadership and interpersonal skills to manage or collaborate with multicultural teams.

Developing management talent through expatriate assignments helps organizations develop the skills to succeed in global markets. Changing Role While expatriates make an important contribution to helping their organizations develop export markets, their role is changing, according to TLNT, a website dedicated to talent management and human resources. We respect your privacy, by clicking 'Subscribe' you will receive our e-newsletter, including information on Podcasts, Webinars, event discounts, online learning opportunities and agree to our User Agreement.

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You can unsubscribe at any time. Martin P. In most situations, an expat assignment will cost you two, maybe three times, the price of a local employee. However, having a person you can trust running your business and training new employees, or hiring a knowledgeable expat for your business, may result in better long-term results. Today we would like to take a closer look at international recruitment and weigh the pros and cons of hiring expats.

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