Global/Multicultural
References Work Place Case
MARCH 31, 1992
The Dutch Mr. de Kleer visited a U.S. grocery store for the first time last fall and felt overwhelmed by the huge assortment of "many things you don't really need."
American-born Catherine Sheldon another globalite had a similar rude shock during a business trip to Romania just before her training ended last fall. She got puzzled looks when she quizzed shoppers about favorite soap brands. "They said, 'What do you mean? You just go in and buy the (available) soap' "-usually a product made by one local manufacturer.
Mr. de Kleer and Ms. Sheldon are part of Colgate's attempt to groom recent college graduates for globe hopping careers. The program, started in 1987, has become such a powerful recruiting tool that more than 15,000 people vie for the 15 slots every year.
"It's a pretty significant trend," says David Weeks, a researcher who is completing a Conference Board study of 130 large multinational companies in the U.S., Europe and Japan. The study found "a certain sense of urgency" among American companies about "trying to build an internationally experienced cadre of executives," Mr. Weeks says. A number of European and Japanese corporate giants have already installed elaborate training and career-tracking mechanisms to develop such executives.
Unless U.S. companies equip their best managers with global skills at younger ages, "they are going to come up short" in global competition, warns Michael Longua, Johnson & Johnson's director of international recruiting. This summer, the healthcare products company will send six U.S. managers with an average tenure of five years - rather than the usual seven to 10 abroad for up to 18 months.
That's why Mr. Hoeffel is moving cautiously. Next year, he plans to give foreign transfers to one or two U.S. personnel managers employed for less than 18 months. "We are hoping to pave the way" for the rest of 3M, which usually restricts such posts to those with 10 years of experience, he says.
Colgate tries to reduce the risk of failure in its global marketing-management training program by screening applicants carefully. A typical participant holds an M.B.A. degree from an American university, speaks at least one foreign language has lived outside the U.S. and comes with both strong computer skills and prior business experience.
The trainees, 25%, of whom are foreign nationals, spend up to 24 months in the U.S. program. During three month stints learning the global business development secrets of -for example- Colgate toothpaste, they must compile a guide for introducing a new product or revamping an existing one in various foreign markets. Participants can also take additional language instruction and make international business trips.
Unlike most American companies, Colgate doesn't deliberately send foreign-born trainees to their native countries for their initial jobs. The foreigners also receive the same generous expatriate compensation packages as Americans-even if they do go home. "We're developing a global cadre not just [French ] management for the French company," explains Anne Crawford, another Colgate official.
The extra pay can create resentment among locally hired managers of foreign subsidiaries, however. Mr. Garrison says that Colgate is tackling the issue by aggressively urging overseas units to recommend their brightest young stars for the training. Until fairly recently, most participants in the program were American," notes 26 year-old Mr. de Kleer, picked as a trainee last year after nine months with Colgate's Dutch unit.
Some U.S. corporations have found that early overseas assignments enable managers to widen their perspectives before they get paralyzed by parochial attitudes. In July 1990, American Express Co.'s Travel Related Services unit inaugurated a global-management exchange program aimed at junior managers with at least two years of experience. So far, 18 staff members-typically aged 25 to 35 have come to the U.S. or gone overseas for 18 months. "We can't wait for [employees] to become a director or vice president" before sending them abroad, says Tomasso Zanzotto, president of the unit's international operation.
GE's Aircraft Engine unit takes a different approach to international management training. Certain promising managers can "go global" without relocating from the U.S. as long as they learn how to speak two other languages and how to do business in two other countries.
"We want our people to really understand the [global ] customer" to gain a competitive edge, says John Kinney, manager of GE Aircraft Engine's global-marketlng training program. Nearly 500 mid Ievel engineers and technical managers applied for the 14 spots in the training program, which began last October.
International Orientation Resources, a Northbrook, Ill, firm advising GE Aircraft Engine, is crafting similar training for three other concerns-and never had any such requests before this year.
But such trailblazing efforts sometimes stall over costs. Money-losing General Motors Corp. recently put on hold a three year-old program that sent 30 U.S. middle managers abroad for three months. In the past, the auto giant had limited foreign transfers largely to senior executives with at least 15 years' experience. The short-stint program "was one leg of a strategy to internationalize the company" by catching people "earlier in their careers" says Richard Rachnel GMs general director of international personnel.
GM may revive the program this fall by dispatching one or two managers, but a decision hasn't been made yet. "We realize it is a global world," Mr. Rachner says. "We have to continue to take advantage of our [human ] resources." But balancing that need against cost cutting, the personnel executive says, "is not easy."