12/11/2006 - 12/12/2006

Business and Globalization: Strategies for CEOs

What can CEOs of global companies do to ameliorate the dangers of globalization? Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn has four suggestions:

Steady progress. Seek managed, modulated improvement rather than unexpected big spurts, particularly in wages or working conditions. Even if the “big-spurt strategy� would produce better absolute results over time, people will not be as happy in the gap periods between these spurts, when there will seem to be stagnation.

Local hires. Use local managers whenever possible, and develop a systematic method of training and promoting them. Limit ex-pat executives as much as possible. When this is not practical at the beginning of a foreign operation, evince progress by increasing the number and seniority of local leaders.

Respect. CEOs must vote with their bodies, not only with their mouths, and travel to countries that are important to their firms; words alone are not sufficient and superficial visits wear thin. Trips should be regular and substantive, including meetings with local managers and staff, as well as government officials. Some language learning doesn’t hurt either, if only to demonstrate an effort to appreciate the culture. Four of the most successful firms in China are Goldman Sachs, AIG, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup; for years, their senior executives, Henry Paulson, Maurice Greenberg, John Mack and Chuck Prince/Bob Rubin, respectively, traveled to China multiple times every year.

Transparency. People are naturally suspicious—and secrecy feeds their fears. Rumors can be so rootless and virulent that they are hard to source and impossible to stop. Whenever operating internationally, companies—like countries— should learn to be more open, even though overt honesty may go against the grain of leaders, who by nature tend to be guarded and controlling.

More than 50% Web Traffic to US Sites from Abroad

comScore Networks, a leader in measuring the digital age, today released the results of a study showing that 14 of the top 25 U.S. Web properties attract more traffic from people outside the U.S. than from within. Among them are the Top 5 Web properties in the U.S. – Yahoo! Sites, Time Warner Network, Microsoft Sites, Google Sites and eBay.

“As Internet usage outside the U.S. has grown rapidly from a small base, the U.S. share of the world’s online population has fallen from 65 percent to less than 25 percent in the last 10 years,� said Bob Ivins, managing director of comScore Europe. “The fact that more than three-quarters of the traffic to Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft is now coming from outside of the U.S. is indicative of what a truly global medium the Internet has become.�

Diversity Survey: Improving Retention of Minority Professionals

The Robert Toigo Foundation, in collaboration with Heidrick & Struggles, today released findings from its “Retention Returns: Insights for More Effective Diversity Initiatives� survey of more than 300 young professionals of color working in finance. The findings point to a distinct pattern of events that ultimately lead to the voluntary departure of professionals of color and offers finance firms recommendations to help reverse the trend.

The Toigo Foundation conducted Retention Returns to provide finance firms with insights into current diversity initiatives and ways in which retention efforts might be improved. Conducted in collaboration with Heidrick & Struggles, a global executive search firm that works closely with major corporations to address executive talent recruitment and retention issues, the survey captures viewpoints of professionals of color within the field of finance — the very individuals finance firms’ diversity programs are designed to attract and support.

Java Goes Multilingual

Over two years in the making, Sun Microsystems Inc. is due to release the latest version of its Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) software Monday, placing particular emphasis on the application development platform's support for other scripting languages.

Java SE 6 is the first version of the software where developers will be able to mix Java technology with other languages such as PHP, Python, Ruby and JavaScript.

"Going multilingual is a big theme of this release," said Mark Reinhold, Sun's chief engineer for Java SE.

Is English Still Popular?

Most people accept that English dominates the world in terms of commerce, politics and pretty much everything else. As a result a multi-million dollar industry has grown from it generally called TEFL or EFL - i.e. teaching English to non-native speakers. However, a question now in the back of many people's minds is whether English can continue this dominance or will it have to start sharing the limelight with other languages such as French, Spanish, Chinese or Korean? This article from Japan gives us a hint of what may be the beginning of the end of English's domination of the world.

Ever since Japan opened its doors to the West, English has been zealously studied in Japan's high schools, night schools, universities and companies. But now that business with other Asian economies is booming, for how much longer will English remain the tongue of choice for linguists?

In the cramped reception area of a gray office building not far from Matsudo station near Tokyo is a bookshelf packed with well-thumbed textbooks. "Easy first steps in Indonesian" reads one. Another is titled: "An Introduction to Russian."

Word of the Day: approbation

approbation \ap-ruh-BAY-shuhn\, noun:
1. The act of approving; formal or official approval.
2. Praise; commendation.

The speech struck a responsive chord among many and won him much approbation. -- George Bush and Brent Scowcroft, A World Transformed

More importantly, these drawings represented a first success, which brought the intoxicating rewards of approbation and cash. -- Matthew Sturgis, Aubrey Beardsley: A Biography

1 in 10 Brits are Expats

Almost one in 10 British citizens are now living abroad, ranging from young workers seeking fortunes elsewhere to older people who have retired to sunnier destinations.

As many as 5.5 million expats overseas according to new figures from a leading think-tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). Although Australia and Spain are the most popular destinations for those leaving, increasing numbers are now also making their way to some of the richer Asian economies, including China, as well as the United Arab Emirates.

The UK’s strong economy at home appears to have been a key factor in encouraging Britons to broaden their opportunities in other countries, according to Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah, co-author of the report.

Canada: Firms Lack any Diversity Plans

Employers are talking the talk but failing to follow through with action when it comes to their commitment to diversity hiring, according to a Conference Board of Canada report released Friday.

While many Canadian organizations say diversity is a priority in their hiring, the reality is that 42 per cent have no strategic plan to back up those words and fewer than half the respondents in a Conference Board survey offer diversity training to their managers and employers.

Elluminate Announces New Foreign Language Support for Flagship Product

Elluminate, Inc., a leading provider of live eLearning and web collaboration solutions for the real-time organization, announced today the release of several foreign language translations for use in its flagship product Elluminate Live!® As part of the company's open initiative with its user group, the Elluminati, Elluminate Live! 6.5 is now available in Simplified Chinese, Spanish and French. In addition, Elluminate Live! 7.0 is now available in German, Japanese, Brazilian, Portuguese, Spanish and French. The default language for both versions remains English.

MEPs back call for EU language change

The leaders of the European parliament’s two biggest political groups are backing calls for German to be used on all future EU presidency websites.

European ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros announced on Monday that presidency websites should be available not only in English and French, but also in German and, possibly, other languages.

The Greek’s suggestion has received support from the leaders of the European People’s Party and the Socialist group, both of whom are German.

Language barrier blocks British graduates

British graduates are missing out on top business jobs because of their lack of language skills, an academic has warned ahead of a review of the government's foreign languages policy.

Bill Houston, programme director of undergraduate international business at Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University, said a shortage of languages was having a knock-on effect in the business world.

Mr Houston said British graduates were increasingly losing out to their foreign counterparts for top jobs because they do not have the bilingual skills required for those positions.

Think Firefox For International Sales

An entire business world exists beyond the borders of sea to shining sea in America. Businesses from small operations to giant multinationals have found customers in the US. There could be plenty more customers just waiting for the chance to spend money on one's site when international sales open.

It's important to welcome these visitors as professionally and effectively as possible. For sites that have been around for a while, or even new ones whose developers have built a site first and foremost to look nice in Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Firefox users arriving from abroad may see something different.

Word of the Day: ossify

ossify \AH-suh-fy\, intransitive verb:
1. To change into bone; to become bony.
2. To become hardened or set in a rigidly conventional pattern.
transitive verb:
1. To change into bone; to convert from a soft tissue to a hard bony tissue.
2. To harden; to mold into a rigidly conventional pattern.

One is left with the image . . . of a lonely, aging dictator "still searching for something that is impossibly elusive," still haranguing his audiences, yet incapable of recognizing the flaws of the system he has created, and presiding over an increasingly ossified regime and society. -- Stanley Hoffmann, "Power Unshared and Total", New York Times, November 30, 1986