跨国公司怎样实现管理层的多元化

    为什么说所有这些都是很重要的问题？首先，考虑一下，如果公司总是挑选本土管理者进入最高层，那将向它的人才群体传递出什么样的信息。在外国市场工作的中层经理和潜力很大的年轻人才都雄心勃勃，但当他们看到自己的职业发展面临人为限制时，就很可能另寻高就。因此，咨询公司Corporate Executive Board的调查显示，2010年选择跨国公司、而非国内企业的中国高等技能人才的比重只有2007年的一半左右。如今，许多公司都表示缺乏称职的经理人是制约其全球战略实施能力的一个重要因素。鉴于这种情况，以上数据简直让人感到害怕。

    此外，最高管理层自身也受到了直接影响。一项研究得出的结论称：“尽管专业经验和文化社会化都会对高管战略思维模式的形成产生影响，但国家价值观是预测高管决策的更好指标。”假如高级管理者是完美的世界主义者，而且不论身处何地都能发挥同样的效力，那么最高层多元化不足并不会有很大影响——但他们并不是这样。实际上，就团队解决问题情况进行的研究表明，多元化团队更有可能提出有创意的解决方案。

    对此公司可以做些什么呢？显然，在最高管理团队或董事会中引进非本国人士要比刻意去挑选非本国首席执行官更便于操作——要点在于，不要只做表面文章。其他思路还包括：

    • 在各国之间轮换国家经理（而不仅仅是从公司总部派出经理）；

    • 让来自其他国家的经理在总部待上一段时间【实际上，德国邮政DHL（Deutsche Post DHL）首席执行官安澎一直在跟踪有来自多少个国家的员工在波恩总部工作】；

    • 在本国之外建立部门总部或业务总部。通用电气（General Electric) 医疗事业部正在将其X射线业务总部从威斯康辛州沃基肖迁到北京；

    • 当来自其他国家的经理得到升迁时，对他们的成功表示祝贺；

    • 利用公司大学让管理者有机会见面，尤其要为非本国人士保留位置【戴姆勒奔驰（Daimler Benz）最近规定，参与该公司年轻经理发展项目的人员中，必须有一半来自德国之外】；

    • 重视跨国工作团队和跨境项目【举个例子，这就是建材公司西麦斯（Cemex，CX）的一个工作重点】；

    • 进行收购时，确保目标公司国际人才库的质量是主要的评估标准之一；

    • 确保本公司的非本国人士不会系统性地进入慢车道，原因是似乎经常出现这种情况。

    除了这个公司话题，本次会议还探讨了个体转型问题，在这方面个人要承担主要责任。古铁雷斯在成都强调说：“再也没有什么比文化好奇心更令人愉悦的了”。他还可以补充说，也没有什么比它更具有教育意义的了。

    潘卡吉•盖马沃特是IESE商学院全球战略Rubiralta教席教授，也是《世界3.0》一书的作者；赫尔曼•万加彭在总部位于布鲁塞尔的战略咨询公司Akordeon担任董事总经理。（财富中文网）

    译者：Simon

    Why does all this matter? Think, first of all, about the message that companies send to their talent pool by consistently selecting native leaders at the top. When ambitious middle managers and young high-potentials working in foreign markets see their career progress artificially limited, they are likely to seek opportunities elsewhere. Thus, according to a Corporate Executive Board survey, highly skilled Chinese professionals' preference for working in multinational over domestic companies in 2010 was only half as strong as it was in 2007. At a time when companies routinely cite the lack of qualified managers as the key constraint on their ability to implement their global strategies, the results are chilling.

    Beyond that, there is also the direct effect on the top leadership itself. One research study concludes that, "while both professional experiences and cultural socialization contribute to the shaping of executives' strategic mindset, national values are stronger predictors of executive decision making." If senior leaders were perfectly cosmopolitan and equally effective anywhere, such a lack of diversity at the top would not matter as much -- but they aren't. In fact, research on team problem solving suggests that diverse teams are more likely to come up with creative solutions.

    What can companies do about it? Obviously, inducting non-natives into the top management team or the board is easier than deliberately setting out to pick a nonnative CEO -- although it is important to move beyond tokenism. Other ideas include

    • Rotating country managers between countries (as opposed to only exporting managers from company headquarters);

    • Allowing managers from other countries to spend time at headquarters (Frank Appel, the CEO of Deutsche Post DHL, actually tracks the number of nationalities working at headquarters in Bonn);

    • Establishing divisional or business headquarters outside the home country. General Electric's (GE) health care unit is moving the headquarters of its X-ray business from Waukesha, Wisc. to Beijing;

    • Celebrating the success of managers from other countries when they move up the ranks;

    • Using corporate universities to bring leaders together, and reserving spots for non-natives in particular (Daimler Benz recently decreed that half of the participants in its development program for young managers must be from outside Germany);

    • Emphasizing multinational taskforces and cross-border project work (a major emphasis at Cemex (CX), for example);

    • When making acquisitions, ensuring that the quality of the target company's international talent pool is among the key assessment criteria; and

    • Making sure that non-natives in the organization don't systematically end up on a slow track, as it seems to happen quite often.

    In addition to this corporate agenda, there is an agenda for individual transformation as well, for which individuals have to take primary responsibility. At Chengdu, Secretary Gutierrez stressed that "there is nothing more flattering than cultural curiosity." Nor more educational, he might have added.

    Pankaj Ghemawat is the Rubiralta Professor of Global Strategy at IESE and the author of World 3.0; Herman Vantrappen is the managing director of Akordeon, a strategic advisory firm based in Brussels.