The Un-Expat

Take the plunge

We all know that multinationals have cut back on expatriate assignments. So what are the expats doing? Also going local.

Expats and their employers—each for different reasons—are converging on a similar outcome: an end to the expat commitment.

Bonnie, an American citizen, has shuttled between the U.S., Singapore, and Australia for most of her work life, always as an assignee from headquarters. Now a regional executive in Asia with a top-tier U.S.-based company, she was almost speechless when I asked her if she has any plans to return to headquarters. “Why would I do that? The opportunities are in Asia.” Another American, a top regional executive with a U.S. multinational who has been in Singapore less than a year, is just now coming to terms with the realization that he is happier in Asia than in headquarters. “It’s emotionally tough to consider the possibility of leaving after spending my entire life with this company. But I’ve got to look to where the opportunities are, here or on the outside. And after being exposed to the opportunities in Asia, this is where the action is.” Like Bonnie, he is open to giving up the lucrative expat deal for a local-hire package with a great organization.

There are many reasons multinationals continue to send their high-potential executives to Asia as expats, even as the emphasis has shifted to hiring local talent. Once these executives arrive in Asia, from what I see, all bets are off. For many expats, the traditional three-to-five-year expatriate assignment is a thing of the past. Over time, some willingly bail out of their expat status, recognizing these benefits as symbols of a colonial mindset or as visible and costly burdens for their employers. Others, like those I mentioned, look to stay on with their new expertise as “local” hires. At any rate, good people want to manage their careers on their own terms, while good companies are taking steps to hire and develop local talent.

For a multinational corporation trying to manage the shift, though, it’s not so easy. Building a pipeline of mature, agile, and ready local leaders is both strategic and cost-effective. But apprenticing local talent takes time. So even as they reduce their expat employees, most companies still need a blend of expatriate mentors and high-potential local talent. That’s why, the top, at the most strategic and regional levels, fully-loaded expatriate packages are still the norm. Getting this balance right, and keeping it, is tough. Especially now that the talent—whether local nationals, localized expats or strategic assignees—hold all the cards.

Indeed, few self-respecting executives would describe themselves as expats today. All talent, local or non-local, recognize the need to blend into the local melting pot to make a meaningful contribution. There’s also more eagerness to gain experience over immediate reward—a bold shift in mindset borne partly out of expats’ survival instincts and partly out of a desire to shape their own careers.

These un-expats understand that with success and the right attitude, career opportunities exist internally and externally, locally and overseas, all the time, regardless of a current employer’s repatriation plan, especially in fast-evolving Asia. Their future is determined by the cut and thrust of the market for talent, not by some executive sponsor in headquarters. Recruiters call every day. These executives are in it for the journey, not just the job; they own their careers and take things as they come. Being “an expat” is a thing of the past. They’re now local.

A multinational will win the loyalty of an assignee not with a binding expat deal, but by ensuring that the he or she receives immediate and tangible career benefits here and now (and that these benefits outweigh sexy opportunities on the outside). At the same time, let the expats “go local.” Don’t fear losing them and don’t talk in vague notions about three to five years.

All career paths don’t lead back to headquarters, after all. They lead to where the customers are.

Self-Assessment

Why do a self-assessment? Curiosity? Vanity? Self-Improvement? Position yourself for a better job? Whatever the motivation, most of us, regardless of level or role, struggle with some aspect of our performance. The new self assessment from Linkedin and Korn/Ferry, which takes about 10 minutes to complete, not only highlights your five strongest leadership characteristics, but also your blind spots, hidden strengths, problem areas, and career derailers. Lot’s of opportunity for self-reflection here, especially if you’re interested in a career change or if you want some confirmation of your development needs. The big question, as in all assessments, is “so what?” That’s up to you, but it wouldn’t hurt to start by running the results by your friends and colleagues for their thoughts and reactions — in other words, asking for 360-degree feedback. I wasn’t surprised with my strong-suits: Communicating Effectively, Creating the New and Different, Acting with Honor and Character, Relating Skills, Being Organizationally Savvy. The assessment also told me that I don’t spend enough time developing talent around me, a common issue for individual contributors and potentially devastating for executives, especially those wanting to drive change. I would never suggest that recruiters use it to select candidates – it’s too superficial for that. But it will get you thinking. If you’ve tried it, what are your thoughts?

What’s the Job of a Multinational Boss in Asia? (Hint: Less is More)

Can Western multinationals win the race in Asia? Bart, a regional expatriate head of Asia for a fast-growing, mid-sized consumer technology company, spent two years trying to recruit a Country Manager of their largest business in Asia. This executive, young and high-potential, along with his head of Marketing, another expatriate from headquarters, churned through more than twenty candidates over this two-year period, never quite satisfied enough to make an appointment. Meanwhile, Bart, always moving from sales pitch to sales pitch, drove the business in Asia until, after two years, he got the promotion he wanted back home and his assignment in Asia came to an end. He eventually left the company after a frustrating repatriation and called me with a request to assist him in his job search. “I love Asia,” he said. “It’s where the action is. I grew the business in Asia 30 percent during my two years.” How’s the business doing now? “Not good. Weak leadership.” Could this peripatetic executive have achieved more by doing less? Let’s look at what Jack Ma said in a recent interview and reflect again on multinational leadership in Asia:

• If you want to do business in China, send your best people who serve your customers and not the investors. Customers number 1, employee number 2, shareholder number 3. If the customer is happy, the business is happy, and the shareholders are happy.
• I do not see strong competition. We are trying to make sure that Alibaba is the infrastructure of Chinese commerce, and most of China’s companies are about building products.
• We were born in 1999. I want the company to last 102 years so that it lasts across three centuries.
• China has more than 500 million entrepreneurs. As an entrepreneur I see the opportunities.
• I think the best people you train yourself and you develop. Multinationals use headhunters and try to find the best people. I applied three times to university and failed. I tried to apply for 27 different jobs and failed. Today the reason Jack Ma is up here talking to you is because I learned. Treat your people well. China is different from the other nations like Japan and the US. China is more entrepreneurial than Japan or the US. Give young people a lot of opportunities. I spend a lot of time and resources ion training our own people. I hope – like Jack Welsh says – that 20 or 30 percent of the CEOs of other companies come from our company.

By the time my 30 year-old Associate becomes a gray-haired Partner like me, two-thirds of the world’s middle class will be buying through Alibaba or through giant malls in the suburbs of Asia. Our businesses in Asia will have grown five to ten times in scale. For many companies, China will be a larger domestic market than the US. On a typical Friday afternoon, more of your suppliers, customers, outsourcers, and consultants will be connecting through Chengdu on their flights home than through Chicago, with fewer delays. What does this mean for multinationals doing business in Asia? The Chinese consumer doesn’t know or care where your Board members meet or on what stock exchange your shares trade. They want products on the shelves to meet their needs at the right price points. Jack Ma’s principles apply: Focus on the customer. Be entrepreneurial. Treat your employees well. Exploit local opportunities. Multinationals ned to build talent on an unprecedented scale from the inside out.

All expats are tempted to demonstrate value immediately, to be the hero they were hired to be. Yet many expats conclude their assignments having erected castles in the sand. It doesn’t take long for waves of change to wash their achievements away, even as they get promoted for their great work. So what’s the job of the regional or global leader in Asia? Consider defining your value by defining the space for others to be successful. This taps into the entrepreneurial value system in China described by Jack Ma. For some this may mean spending more time coaching talent, gaining alignment on a bigger vision, building infrastructure, or unlocking the potential of teams. Or defining a more liberating culture and creating opportunity for locals to create new ideas, business models, products or customers. Or making that long-awaited appointment in North Asia and spending more time making him or her successful. Great talent doesn’t need more bosses. They need space.

Roads Not Taken

Which track?

Most of my conversations with job-seekers focus more on finding jobs than on making career or life changes. This makes sense. My corporate clients are practical: they need to know if and how the candidate’s leadership skills, motivations, and competencies match the needs of the organization. Most of my candidates are not out of work; they tend to view their career as a linear trek up the ladder. They’ll ask if the opportunity provides more responsibility, challenge or pay. And yet every step up the ladder has an opportunity cost: the road not taken. The conversation on “career changes” forces executives to ponder deeper questions relating to their basic motivations, aspirations, and dreams. What am I good at and why? What if I did follow my dreams? What are the consequences of not taking the big leap? How realistic are my aspirations? What’s blocking me from achieving them or even taking the first step? Most of us don’t take the time to envision our future. The recent Great Recession forced many executives to re-examine their careers only after they found themselves out of a job. When is the right time to ask these questions?

These are meaty conversations for career coaches, spouses, mentors, priests, and best friends – someone with no axe to grind, who has no other agenda than to help with your career choices and life goals. There are books written on the subject. Korn/Ferry has written a practical guide to careers. You’ll also find links on the right side of this blog. But most of these articles or guides provide ”tips” rather than start with the unique needs of the career-changer. It wouldn’t hurt to open up to executive search consultants when you get the call – if you can find one that will care about you, the person, not you, the candidate. But the conversations need to start somewhere. If it doesn’t start here and now, then when is a better time?

Why Regional Executives Fail

Who’s next?

With today’s intense focus on Asia in Boardrooms and C-suites today, it is easy to see why everyone at the top wants to be part of the action. And why the top job in Asia is one of the most challenging – and risky – jobs around. One multinational regional president of Asia told me, “We have too many cooks in the kitchen willing to sharpen their knives.” Over the recent years, as multinationals try to figure out how to turbo-charge growth, their Asia Pacific territories, regions, theatres, and zones have been cut and sliced and reorganized into every functional and sub-regional configuration and matrix imaginable. For many regional executives, the result is a watered down role, high in visibility, low in personal impact, and fraught with risk. “What strikes me about my role,” said another regional executive, “is that they (corporate bosses) want double-digit revenue growth from me without bothering to help build an Asian strategy. We are not aligned.” Yes, the job is high in personal risk, but why do some executives thrive and others fail? Why do some companies rotate through regional executives like so many contestants on the TV show Survivor?

As usual, the answer boils down to learning-adaptive qualities and behaviors of people. There are three main reasons why regional executives fail. First, many executives fail to stay ahead of changes and evolutions in the marketplace. A company’s strategies around products, customers, and talent are based on old or the wrong assumptions. In Asia, this is a very real possibility. They fail to anticipate the advancing puck. These executives find that as revenues fall, their subordinates and bosses lose confidence in their ability to respond with new ways of doing things. Second, many regional executives find difficulty in managing the complex cultural differences across the region. Typically, these execs are brought down by their own people who complain about their lack of sensitivity with subordinates, inability to relate to customers, or lack of EQ. Third, and most common, is their failure to ‘manage up’ effectively. Of course, it takes two to communicate, but successful executives assume accountability for educating their bosses on Asia and influencing the outcomes of key decisions that affect their customers and employees. They use their organizational skills and savvy to align, realistically, the revenue goals of the region with the resources necessary to achieve success. If more or different resources are needed, they don’t leave a headquarters empty-handed or uneducated on the facts. These conscientious and mature executives demonstrate a willingness to confront sensitive, often untouchable issues, in support of their mission.

Coaching and executive development can help, but the best way to ensure success is to appoint the right executives in the first place, taking care to assess the leadership competencies necessary to drive the business forward. These companies build the pipeline and avoid a succession of regional misfires. The regional executive role in Asia is a high risk, high reward role, requiring wide-open eyes, lots of humility, confidence, and savvy. As Asia roller-coasters its way to becoming an economic powerhouse, making the right choice is not easy. For company and executive alike, do your due-diligence up front.

(For some ideas on how to assess executives for top roles in Asian multinationals, check out Lessons from the Asian C-Suite from the Korn/Ferry Institute.)

Don’t Blame the Rat

Find the motivation

Have you ever heard one of your senior executives say, in effect, “We in management are trying to drive transformation in our company. You people are resisting change.” When I heard this finger-pointing by a foreign boss in a room full of Asian managers recently, my mind connected back to my old business school professor, Steve Kerr, who used to say “Don’t blame the rat.” In other words, look to the cheese. The phrase, of course, refers to our notion that rewards drive actions. Days ago, my mind returned to the phrase during conversation with a client on the subject of rewards and retention in China. I found myself re-phrasing the line, in an effort to put rewards in context. “We’re suffering from a high level of departures. Some of our best people are leaving over compensation. We need to increase pay,” my client said. I responded, “Don’t blame the cheese.”

While careful not to minimize the importance of pay in China, I truly wonder whether paying at the 50 percentile or 75 percentile is going to make much of a difference in a country where managers routinely get 50% increases in pay to jump to a competitor. Getting your business right in China requires a more systemic approach to leadership and talent management. To the highly accountable Chinese mindset, how much you invest in my career, how I’m recognized among my peers, and what I’m being measured on are just as important as pay. These define the cheese and explain why great companies place emphasis on action learning, challenging assignments, “talking talent” among the leadership team, and hiring the right talent in the first place. And why leaders need to ‘own’ the transformation. Small wonder, then, that at the first sign of finger-pointing by a foreign boss, an unseen pall fills the room with thoughts of finding the exit. And thoughts of more cheese.

Case Study: China Fortunes

Who owns the brand?

How does a mainstream global multinational set about turning a somewhat tired consumer brand in China, growing in the single digits in 2005, into a market-leading, powerhouse brand, growing in the double digits five years later, culminating in a four-fold growth in revenues? DDG (not the real name) created a culture of deep consumer centricity and ruthless focus, supported by a globally aligned leadership team, to take full advantage of China’s emerging opportunities. In turbo-charging growth, acquisitions help, as they did for DDG, by building scale, multifaceted talent, and broader and deeper capabilities. But acquisitions didn’t account for the success of this Turbo brand, which saw organic growth far surpassing competition and even DDG’s own past successes. Over these five years, DDG drove a huge shift in the organization’s commitment to innovation, local decision-making, and talent. Our first instinct is to attribute this success to one game-changer, in this case, to Tom Ringer (not his real name), the agile head of Marketing. Much credit is due. His impressive communication skills, humility, and strategic sensibilities pop out. He’s the un-superman. I’m tempted to doom Tom with the ‘effective manager’ moniker, which isn’t how we describe game-changers in this day and age. Most impressively, this leader, based in Asia and armed with natural charm, savvy, and empathy, altered the organization’s orientation from a headquarters’ sense of true north to an entirely new bearing, a place deep inside the Chinese consumer. The result was a fresh and open mindset and willingness to dismantle all that was understood about the Brand. A new organizational culture took root in China and grew in lock-step with Corporate’s willingness to cultivate local autonomy, accountability and pride. Along with all the other good stuff, DDG’s growth recipe has resulted in a senior leadership team in Asia that is now 90 percent Asian, up from just 75% two years ago. The team takes pride in, and celebrates, the results. This personalized, globally aligned leadership team, led by Tom, is not the stuff of super-heroes; it is, however, game-changing.

China will emerge as the world’s largest economy during the career-span of Tom’s high-potential young managers. Two-thirds of the world’s middle class will reside in Asia by the year 2030, if not earlier, creating enormous opportunities for both Asian-based and Western-based multinationals – and pressure on these same global competitors to develop talent fast enough to exploit these opportunities. Given the shifting footprint of their customers and workforce, companies like DDG are fast re-thinking their management structures and centers of gravity in an effort to support local decision-making, speed, greater autonomy, and, just as importantly, the mission-critical leadership competencies of their high-potential young leaders. Hardest to alter is the corporate culture underlying most of today’s successful, highly centralized, globally integrated organizations. And yet change they must, especially around the talent that will drive their double-digit growth in Asia.

DDG drove a seismic shift in their approach to marketing, moving from a headquarters-determined brand strategy to a China-centric approach based on deep customer understanding and local innovation. This doesn’t happen without leaders who listen and learn. DDG transformed the way they grew leaders across the talent platform in Asia. It doesn’t take superman.

Performance

It’s easy to imagine the satisfaction of an actor: the applause, the spotlight, the fans. Most of us enjoy recognition, and the actor isn’t any different from the rest of us. I asked an New York film and theater actor about this. He’s been acting for 30 years and has had his share of ups and downs. “The only way for me to survive as an actor is to focus on the moment. When I am doing a scene, whether an audition or a performance, I try to bring something extra, something of me to the scene that I haven’t found before.” What about the audition? Don’t you get depressed when you aren’t selected? “Most of the time I am not selected but I don’t think about that as failure. I only think about bringing something special to the audition. If what I bring isn’t right, and I’m not selected, then I can walk away feeling good about what I did in that moment.” The actor acts because he must; it is existential. The small feeling of achievement isn’t in the applause, although we all like recognition. It is in the feeling that, briefly, in the moment that mattered, he delivered something special.

Haven’t we all felt it – that exhilarating moment when all parties in a drama – be it a meeting, a sales pitch, a job interview – clicked on an intellectual and emotional level? Reflect on times in your life when you achieved this extraordinary result. Something clicked between the actor and the audience, or between two actors on the stage, in a way that resulted in an outcome that was palpable, intimate, elevating, and valuable. There was purpose. Consider the entrepreneur, the job seeker, athlete, salesman, politician, corporate executive. Being in the moment brings out the artist in us. It forces relevance, focus and humility. It brings other actors into our personal drama in a way that delivers outcomes for everyone.  Says the actor, “Sometimes I fail. When I do, I reflect and hopefully learn.” Ask successful leaders who, like the veteran actor, have seen their ups and downs. There are no second acts. There is only today’s performance. Again and again.

Coffee Stains and Broken Glass

I keep this photo on my desktop screen saver to remind me that everyday behaviors define our organizational culture and culture drives results. Who’s leaving the coffee stains? New York drove down its crime rate in the 1990s by implementing its ‘broken window’ strategy of crime prevention. By focusing on the small crimes, New York City was able to instill a culture of intolerance to all crimes, enhancing the everyday lives for everyone, including, presumably, the window bashers. Having said that, what does a New York City firefighter do when confronting a fire? He breaks glass.

There need be no trade-off of accepted behavior, or even our daily etiquette, over results. Mature organizations behave in ways that deliver results ‘their way’ with an implicit understanding of the definitions and limits of good and bad behavior. The New York Police Department got results in a way that reflected the right approach at the right time. My colleague, a successful leader in a critical game-changing unit of our global business, was asked by another colleague what he would have done differently over the past year in order to bring about change at a faster speed. My colleague replied, “I’d break more glass.” In his view, the behaviors necessary to bring about desired results included fast action, a suspension of consensus building, and an ask-permission-later approach. In this view, given the desired result, the right everyday behavior was to leave a few coffee stains because there were more important things to care about. Was this the right behavior? Did he exhibit real leadership in the face of organizational inertia?

Executives in most mature and well-run companies don’t punch their blackberries during critical executive-level meetings. It is not only good etiquette but it demonstrates focus on the task at hand. They demonstrate mission-critical behaviors without compromising corporate values and basic cultural norms. Other less mature or less market tested companies haven’t reached that stage in their development where good and bad behaviors have been codified over time. Their management turnovers are high; they permit bad behavior; their employee engagement is low. Organizations need to pass through adolescence – pass through their acne stage – and show battle scars to prove it. They need to emerge from the experience with internal standards of behavior that are market- and organizationally validated. So, how do we know when it is better to break glass or oust the window-bashers? Here are some thoughts:

1. Behaviors, and mission-critical competencies, need to be aligned to the business goals across the business. Without first achieving alignment on goals and a common purpose, breaking glass can be seen as self-serving, short-term oriented, and counter-productive. With alignment, you’ll receive permission to break glass.
2. Use personal influence to drive change. The game-changers use every ounce of their personal influence to communicate, explain, cajole and coach, even as they act with urgency to make things happen. They may break glass, but they win respect for their intentions, integrity, and results. In the event of failure, we would only ask one question: Did the executive do everything possible to influence the right people, using the right logic and the right arguments at the right time?
3. Who’s agenda is it? Make sure that your agenda is in sync with the organizational agenda; don’t put yours before your company’s.
4. Use your organizational savvy, your EQ, to understand and test the limits of behavior.
5. Lastly, demonstrate leadership. Leaders know when to break and build the rules of a given culture.

With a demonstration of respect, experience, and the right set of personal values, a leader can drive organizational change – and change an organization’s culture through behavior.

Everyday behaviors that define our organizational culture do matter and for most organizations they come naturally. But don’t be afraid to test limits. Cultures are different en every organization, but the best of organizations act with speed, urgency and boldness. Samsung’s culture does not emulate General Electric’s. Even within Korea, Samsung’s culture is not the same as LG’s. Behaviors need alignment to the needs of the business. The executive, in an effort to get results, needs to know the limits of his behaviors, test those limits, and take his or cue from the organization, demonstrating respect for the culture and doing the right thing. The true leader will do all of this…and then change it.

The New Great Game

Tomorrow’s battle for corporate dominance will be fought and won in the emerging markets of Asia, home to half the world’s population. The the winners are likely to Asian.

As the world’s economic center of gravity shifts to Asia over coming decade, new multinational corporations will emerge to take advantage of Asia and emerging markets in ways that the established Western multinationals cannot. These multinational organizations, with cultural roots in Asia, will emerge with a strong natural understanding of Asian consumers and needs; they will possess great adaptability, responsiveness, and consumer insights – posing a threat to the many of today’s largest and most successful Western multinationals…especially those multinationals who continue to maintain their Western roots and leadership far from their customers and suppliers.

These new Asian-based multinationals – Samsung, Tata, HTC, Huawei, LG, Acer, Lenovo, Alibaba, Tencent to name a few of today’s leaders — are not interested in borrowing business models from their Western counterparts; they possess the needs of the emerging markets in their corporate veins and are not interested in the past. The shape their business models and products for the emerging markets from the inside out, drawing on organizational cultures that are unique to Asia – not cultures and organizational models derived from 50 years of multinational experience, but models that germinate from the opportunities and needs of today. The impact of this important mega trend on talent and leadership is staggering. Just in case the boardrooms of the West haven’t noticed, the battle is already being won.