SPANNING THE GLOBE By Allen D. Engle, Sr. Eric Christopher, Associate Director for Global HR De with an excellence in engineering, an outstanding insti- velopment at Tex-Mark, was sitting in his car in an tutional sales staff, cost-sensitive production and pric- early-morning traffic jam. He had thought that by leaving, all combined to make Tex-Mark a major force in ing his home at 7:00 a.m. he would have been ahead of the printer and optical scanner industry. Tex-Mark the heavy commuter traffic into San Antonio's city cen- inherited a production facility in San Antonio from IME, ter. The explanation for the long queue was announced but the company also had international production by the radio traffic service. A large, portable crane, used facilities operating in three countries: Monterrey, Mex- to set up concrete barriers around road works, had ico, Leith, Scotland, and more recently in Jaipur, India. overturned, and inbound and outbound traffic would A major new facility going was planed to start produc- be at a dead stop for at least an hour. tion in Wuhu, China late next year. Eric had ended up at Tex-Mark, a computer input- Research and new product development activities output manufacturer and supplier, through an indirect were split between the home offices in San Antonio, a career route. Brought up in the Hill Country Village dis- printer center in Durham, North Carolina and an optical trict of San Antonio, Eric had graduated from Churchill research center of excellence' in Edinburgh, Scotland. High School and Baylor University in Waco, Texas with Major sales, distribution and customer service centers a major in History and a minor in Spanish. His maternal had recently expanded into Asia and are now located grandmother lived in Tennessee, but was born and in Rheims in France; in Memphis, Tennessee; in grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland and Eric had spent Sydney, Australia; in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; in Hong several summers while in high school and at university Kong and in Tel Aviv, Israel. backpacking around Europe. Faced with the long delay, Eric turned the radio His facility for languages was impressive and he volume down, turned up the air conditioning, and had an excellent working use of Spanish, French, telephoned his office on his hands-free car phone to Italian and German. He could converse in Cantonese, advise them of his situation. Fortunately, his personal as the result of working in a noodle restaurant during assistant was already at work so Eric was able to university and had started a tutorial course in Mandarin rearrange his schedule. He asked that the 10:30 last fall. meeting with Fred Banks, a Plant Engineer recently Upon graduation, Eric backpacked around Europe repatriated from Jaipur, be pushed back an hour. His and South America until his money ran out. Returning major concern was a teleconference meeting at 2:00 to Dallas he took a ticketing job with South West Air- with his Director who was currently visiting the sales lines and was quickly moved to the training unit. After center in Memphis, and the other four members of four successful years at South West, he was contacted Executive career development team in San Antonio by a headhunter about a position as Global Develop The general topic was a review and evaluation of ment Assistant with Tex-Mark. The promised combi- training and development strategies for expatriate nation of global travel. more money and a return to professionals and managers resulting from Tex- San Antonio proved irresistible, and Eric had been with Mark's growth and the new production shift to Asia. Tex-Mark for five years now. His career progress to Eric had indirectly heard that Juanita Roberto, the nation of global travel, more money and a return to San Antonio proved irresistible, and Eric had been with Tex-Mark for five years now. His career progress to date was outstanding, despite the extra workload self- imposed by undertaking MBA studies at UT, San Antonio as a part-time student Tex-Mark had started out as a 'spin off firm from IME Computers in the late 1970s. Patents combined professionals and managers resulting from lex- Mark's growth and the new production shift to Asia. Eric had indirectly heard that Juanita Roberto, the Vice President for HR wanted costs cut and her dele- gates on the team would be pushing for streamlined (Eric had mentally translated that as cheaper) training programs, shorter expatriate assignments and a faster appointment of HCNs whenever possible. CASE 1 SPANNING THE GLOBE 285 While Eric had prepared for this crucial meeting. final comment: 'If this is how you treat the people will- he needed incorporate some information from his ing to go abroad, you'll never get your best engineers office files to leave San Antonio The radio announcer broke into Eric's thoughts, Preparing for the 2:00 meeting, Eric reviewed the commented that overextension or carrying too much unofficial, yet 'standard' expatate training program he weight probably caused the crane to overturn. 'I can had been instrumental in developing over the last three identify with that', Eric thought to himself years (See Exhibit A). Though Eric recommended that Eric's meeting with Fred Banks had not gone well. all pre-departure activities should be undertaken, it Fred was one of the last of the 'IME legacies', an IME was not compulsory. engineer that had stayed on with Tex-Mark after the With the Chinese operation adding to the number of spin off in 1978. Fred had been a bright and promising expatriate destinations, Eric realized Tex-Mark should young engineer back then, and was one of the first have a more formal policy regarding international people chosen to go to Scotland in 1983. He was so assignments. Feedback regarding the interviews and successful in bringing that facility on line in an eleven- conversations with Tex-Mark employees with country month assignment that he was made lead engineer of experiences was mixed. Some had developed into lon- that the Voice 109 The then Eric's meeting with Fred Banks had not gone well. all pre-departure activities should be undertaken, it Fred was one of the last of the 'IME legacies', an IME was not compulsory. engineer that had stayed on with Tex-Mark after the With the Chinese operation adding to the number of spin off in 1978. Fred had been a bright and promising expatriate destinations, Eric realized Tex-Mark should young engineer back then, and was one of the first have a more formal policy regarding international people chosen to go to Scotland in 1983. He was so assignments. Feedback regarding the interviews and successful in bringing that facility on line in an eleven- conversations with Tex-Mark employees with country month assignment that he was made lead engineer of experiences was mixed. Some had developed into lon- the team that went into Mexico in 1989. The three- ger term mentoring arrangements but other expatriates year Mexican project did not go as smoothly. Certainly had found it not useful. Still, it was a low cost way of there were many unavoidable economic uncertainties providing information. Language courses were prob- during that period. lematical. On too many occasions, there was not the Reviewing the files, Eric felt a large part of the prob- time-employees left the country midway through their lem was that Fred's team did not relate well to their language courses. He recalled the idea of more 'exten- Mexican counterparts. Furthermore, the Tex-Mark sive' assignments requiring more complete' and 'rigor- team did not treat the local and national government ous preparation from an MBA course he took last year, agencies with enough respect and sensitivity. Eric Obviously, China is a more challenging and difficult noted that permits and authorizations that should have assignment than France, but can we differentiate treat- taken weeks instead took six months or more. ment on the grounds of cultural difficulty? After the Mexican project Fred stayed in San Antonio More importantly, Eric asked himself, how can I with occasional trips to Durham, North Carolina. His suggest we make our training more rigorous given assignment to India in 1999 was by sheer chance, as a Juanita Roberto's focus on cost? Even if I win on this last minute replacement for another engineer whose fa- point, what will answer when asked what methods or ther was diagnosed with a serious cancer some two activities make up more "rigorous' training? Finally, weeks before the family was to set off on assignment. what is the role of language training? Eric knew not Eric had helped design the pre-departure training pro- everyone took to languages the way he did and that gram for the original candidate and had even included a Mandarin is not Spanish. one-week visit for the candidate and his wife. Finally, is now the time to raise the issue of repatria- Today Fred was angry and disappointed that an tion? The meeting with Fred had been disturbing. 18-month assignment in India has turned into a 3-year Eric knew that the current debriefing and counselling assignment, and that a research position in Durham sessions had a reputation for being more tell and sell' 'promised to him by a previous V.P. (two V.P.s ago) than a meaningful exchange of ideas and insights. was filled by a younger Durham resident employee. Top management had recently signalled this as a Eric bluntly countered that the 18-month assignment growing problem". Enc had planned to gather data on had become a 3-year assignment largely due to Fred's repatriate turnover. Perhaps this should be given a unwillingness to train and hand over responsibilities to higher priority. After all, how could Tex-Mark decide local engineers and his inability to work constructively to plan for international assignments, involving more with district and federal regulators in India. TCN movements, and the transfer of HCNs into its The conversation took a hostile turn and although U.S. operations for training and development, without Eric did not lose his temper, he was troubled by Fred's considering repatriation? Step back out of role and answer the following: 1 Does Eric's personal background assist in his assessment of the problems he faces? 2 Would you have approached this situation differently? If so, what benefits would your different approach provide for Tex-Mark