For Corporations, Is It a Small (Global) World After All?

In one of my overseas assignments some time ago, the global company I was working for had just hired Steve to run its IT center in Hong Kong.  Steve was a Singaporean who had worked at IBM for over twenty years, and had deep functional expertise and experience.  What struck me most about him when I met […]

Is Meritocracy Dying – Or Was It Just a Myth All Along?

An organizational culture that values meritocracy sounds good, doesn’t it? After all, we want to be hired, evaluated, and promoted based on our own merits – as opposed to non-performance-related factors such as our race, our gender, our network, or our political skills. It’s all about getting what we deserve because of our performance. Scan […]

Headquarters Versus Local Overseas Offices – Worlds Apart?

Here are some comments I have heard over the years from executives sitting in regional or headquarters locations about local managers in their subsidiaries: They don’t seem to want anything to do with Corporate. Why can’t they trust us? Don’t they see that they have to follow corporate rules and that they are part of […]