02.04.08

What should I look for in an international executive?

Posted in HR at 5:42 am by Administrator

My observation over time that the most frequent mistake that international companies make is sending the bright young sales or operations manager to head up an international operation. You’re taking someone who had succeeded in one business culture and assuming that s/he can similarly run an operation under very different cultural ways of doing business. The worst mistake is picking someone who has succeeded in only the domestic operation.

The downside risks of having the wrong executives in international positions are considerable. Some estimates are that it costs over $300k to post an executive overseas. Even if you are managing an international operation from the domestic offices, the wrong kind of executive may result in having a manager who misses the cultural cues, doesn’t understand the international legal structures, doesn’t understand the risks of international business and the dificulty of manging employees from another culture.  So what are some characteristics of successful international executives?

1. They are curious about other people and are accepting of differences. Having someone who expects others to adapt to his/her ways of doing business will inevitably lead to problems. This kind of inflexibility is mistaken for the positive trait of drive. A goal-driven executive will recognize when tactics need to be altered and that executive will get that information by reasearch and personal interaction.
2. They listen well to what is or is not being said. To interpret what is being said, the successful international executive has experience in the other culture or has asked experts about how to interpret what is going on.
3. The successful international executive can think strategically, several moves ahead, like a good chess player. S/he develops options and contigency plans that reflect the business culture and legal systems.
4. Speaking another foreign language is a plus. To speak another language fluently is to understand how language influences thought patterns. One senior executive of an accounting firm remarked to me that it took two to three years for an executive to reach fluency; to learn differing accounting and business practices took only months. Hence he hired only language qualified executives, even if he had to go beyond the firm.
5. The international executive has to be trusted that s/he is representing the company interests, not those of the international employees or customers. In the diplomatic world, the problem is called “localitis” — when a diplomat is representing the views of the country s/he is posted to and not the other way around. The same goes for international executives. One solution is to rotate the executives around a fairly constant basis.
6. If an executive is being sent overseasand has a family, the family has to have the same characteristics of curiosity and willingness to accept people of different cultures. Several times I saw talented executives cut their international postings short because the family couldn’t adapt to the strains of international living. In most cases, the executive goes to a structured office that resembles the ones back home — the family has to adapt to the daily challenges of the new culture.

I’ll be adding comments over the next few weeks on other topics associated with international recruiting.

Please join in with your comments… 

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