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Recruiters and hiring managers say that the demand for executives to globalize business operations and tap worldwide markets has exceeded the supply of globally experienced executives – at least in America.

As business schools race to add global curriculum, dozens of new alumni-education programs and executive education courses suggest that there is a market waiting to be served – expensively and immediately.

One of the more interesting new programs stems from a firm that has been evangelizing the discipline of global leadership for years, the Center for Creative Leadership, a non-profit executive education group. CCL, as it is known, is launching a program in October called Advancing Global Leadership.

“What makes this program unique is a business simulation,” says Mike Kossler, CCL Senior Enterprise Associate. He says the US$3,500 program will run simultaneously in Brussels, Greensboro, N.C. and Singapore. The three sites will collaborate to “simulate what it’s like to work in a global environment and lead a dispersed team.”

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Archives for MNC

Nine years ago popular wisdom held that the well-heeled maker of Mercedes-Benz would rescue down-on-its luck Chrysler. Today we pick over the remains of the transnational automotive colossus wondering whether this was a doomed marriage of economic haves and have nots – or the byproduct of multi-cultural management challenges?

While company officials hastened to downplay fears of further cuts into Chrysler’s 80,000 mostly unionized workforce, additional layoffs seem inevitable beyond the 13,000 announced in February.

Should we add globalization to the burgeoning list of possible career hazards? Consider this: Daimler-Chrysler management and investors may have overreached but as multinational stories go, it is the exception rather than the rule.

In a way, this failed marriage obscures the fact that many other American giants such as Pepsi, GE, General Motors, Citi and IBM have done an effective job of globalizing their corporate operations and recruiting talent around the globe.

Still, this was no merger of equals, contrary to the popular spin of the time. To what extent is the breakup and sale a byproduct of multi-cultural management challenges? I suspect that we will read a lot of stories about how German management never really ‘got’ Chrysler or connected to its American customers.

Another case in point is SAP AG, the German enterprise software giant, which according to a report in a recent Wall Street Journal ran into trouble attempting to tone down its Germanic culture while globalizing its identity. It’s not a stretch to compare Daimler and SAP, both large German employers with global operations, both recently seen stumbling in America.

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Revlon Products, the New York-based cosmetics giant, is expanding its international reach into nearly 200 countries. Revlon’s global strategy isn’t high gloss. Pursuing a cost-cutting initiative, the global-savvy company launched call centers in India last September.

Revlon executives tapped 43 trainers and other personnel to fly to Mumbai and New Delhi to brief the new team on corporate culture and processes. Can you guess how many of these 43 Revlon workers owned a passport?

• None
• One
• Seven
• Thirty-three

Let’s just say that after Revlon’s request, there was a very long line at the local post office.

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Archives for MNC

You wake up one Monday and read in the newspaper that your employer intends to move its corporate headquarters to the Middle East. How is the rest of your day looking?

Undoubtedly, some Halliburton shareholders and at least some of its supporters may endorse the much-maligned government contractor and oil drilling firm’s plans to swap Houston for Dubai. But, amid mounting criticism by Democrats among others, the controversial move may spark a Congressional probe.

“My office will be in Dubai, and I will run our entire worldwide operations from that office,” Halliburton’s Chief Executive David Lesar declared at an energy conference in Bahrain on Sunday. “Dubai is a great business center.”

In the early reaction, the national media has overlooked an important angle, in my view: what about Halliburton’s 106,000 employees? On the bright side, there is air-conditioning in Dubai. But I don’t suppose that the United Arab Emirates affords the same protections and freedoms that American workers, especially women, enjoy now. According to Wikipedia, in the United Arab Emirates, “Salary structures and treatment based on nationality, sex, age, and race rather than on qualification are common.”

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