Tweet

Expatriate Selection – The $1 Million Man (or Woman)

Guest post by: Ben Nash

Article Overview: We have checked out a lot of great talent development ideas in this blog; however, the other side of being a successful talent developer is understanding what causes talent failure. One of the most expensive areas of talent failure is with expatriates! Expatriate failure is the premature return home of an expatriate manager. Did you know that between 16% and 40% of all American expatriates assigned to developed countries, fail to complete their assignments. Even worse-almost 70% of Americans assigned to developing countries return home early. Each expatriate failure can cost the organization between $250,000 and $1 million.

Expatriate Selection – The $1 Million Man (or Woman)

We have checked out a lot of great talent development ideas in this blog; however, the other side of being a successful talent developer is understanding what causes talent failure. One of the most expensive areas of talent failure is with expatriates! Expatriate failure is the premature return home of an expatriate manager. Did you know that between 16% and 40% of all American expatriates assigned to developed countries, fail to complete their assignments. Even worse—almost 70% of Americans assigned to developing countries return home early. Each expatriate failure can cost the organization between $250,000 and $1 million.

Research shows the main reasons for expatriate failure for U.S. multinationals are:

• The inability of an expatriate’s spouse to adapt
• The manager’s personal or emotional maturity
• The manager’s inability to cope with larger overseas responsibilities

Bottom line—before sending someone on an extended overseas assignment:

• Be sure to evaluate his or her family situation
• Assess their level of ability cope successfully in unstructured and unfamiliar cultural settings

It could save you $1 million.

Related Articles
  Expatriate Transfer Advisor
  Looking Back Planning Ahead
  Parable on Leadership Wisdom
  From Sharecropper's Daughter to College President
  Women Angry At Work
  Are You Too Big for Your Britches?
  Wonder Woman Wannabe?
  Its Time For Women To Lead in America in Entrepreneurship
  A Woman\'s Edge In Sales
  Lesson #4: Leave A Strong Impression
  Lesson #4: Break Down the Barriers in Your Way
  Body Image Stress - Aging Insecurities and Self-Image
  Stress and the Dating Game
  Top Traits of Women Entrepreneurs
  The Glass Ceiling Effect In Selling
  Is success just around the corner? Discover our top 7 secrets to take you there... FAST!
  Black Investors PLC of Britain Lends $13m to Microfinance Institution (MFI) Kagisano of South Africa
  Why should international companies pay more attention to the personal needs of staff when offering them a foreign assignment
  Small Business Loan Programs Salvaged In 2009 Budget
  Jumping to Conclusions

Article Tags: american expatriates, developing countries, expatriate failure, expatriate manager, talent management



Related Forum Posts
Re: How To Be Rich - [quote="TheRainmaker":tst8wsa8]Sounds great. What exactly have you found to be eye opening??[/quote:tst8wsa8] The first eye opener was measuring wealth by your total assets 1 Million - 2 Million Pounds The Comfortable Poor 2 Million - 5 Million Pounds The Comfortably Off 5 Million - 15 Million Pounds The Comfortably wealthy 15 Million - 40 Million Pounds The Lesser Rich 40 Million - 75 Million Pounds The Comfortably Rich 75 Million - 100 Million Pounds The Rich 100 Million - 200 Million Pounds The Seriously Rich 200 Million - 400 Million Pounds The Truly Rich 400 Million - 999 Million Pounds The Filthy Rich Over 999 Million Pounds The Super Rich
Re: Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg the youngest list on Forbes 400 - Lucky man! I'm only worth $750 Million so I didn't quite make it. LOL
Challenge as a Business Women? - Hi Ladies, Wow! I thought someone would be interesting in being in the spotlight here and get some great peer feedback on what she could do to grow her business. Perhaps, we should change the approach. What is your greatest challenge as a Business Woman? Do you have some questions of others here as to how to overcome it? Wishing you the best in your business success! Warmly, Tami
girl vs. woman - "Girl" makes me feel younger...which is good. "Woman" makes me feel powerful...which is better.
Starbucks vs Dunkin' Donuts - OT, but amusing... I saw a funny commercial for Dunkin Donuts the other day. Woman goes into a fancy coffee place and wants to order a large coffee, but she can't. The coffee comes in three sizes, but they are... and then the sales girl rattles off three Italian-sounding names... And then a Dunkin Donuts spokesman comes on and says, "Small, medium and large. We keep it simple." I assume this is a dig at the pretentiousness of Starbucks, where they name their sizes in a pretentious way. (I have to admit I've only been to a Starbucks once, to get some cookies - as I don't even drink coffee - but the prices were outrageous!)


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Setting Goals for your Home Based Business

The State of the Sustainable Furniture Industry

Fighting the Saw-Tooth Affect

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.