colgate palmolive : managing international careers
COLGATE PALMOLIVE : MANAGING INTERNATIONAL CAREERS
A) Why does C-P place such importance on expatriate assignments?
As a global company with a presence in 75 countries the expatriates themselves and their assignments become of great importance to the company. The rising share of foreign markets up to two thirds of the total revenue and profit of the company has made the expatriate assignments even more important for the company. The expatriate assignments are important not only for the financial aspect that is effecting the company but for other major reasons to spread the corporate culture and practices around foreign subsidiaries and exposing its managers to international training in order for them to take over higher managerial positions later on in their careers. The expatriate assignments usually deal with new found subsidiaries abroad or launching of new products , the company needs experienced people from its head quarters or other subsidiaries who have knowledge in order to hire and train local employees , introduce the products, techniques, values and culture of the company and adapt them to the methods in the local conditions . The transferring of knowledge and building up of the subsidiary in a foreign environment is not only difficult from the view point of the managers but it is also a very crucial aspect for the companies growth and competitiveness in its business and capturing the market. If an expatriates assignment fails due to some reasons its puts the whole future of c-p in that country in to jeopardy as well as gives the competition a upper hand in that market. Because the expatriates are the driving force of next growth and creating new markets their assignments are of significant importance to the company and this the reason c-p pays such a lot of attention to the expatriate assignments .
B) Are there other, more efficient ways, to transfer knowledge?
Besides using the expatriate program which costs the company approximately 23 million dollars a year .There are some other cost efficient and better ways to transfer the knowledge .Face to face communication is the most effective way of transferring knowledge therefore the company can have informal networking activities amongst managers through joint work in teams task forces both at the regional office level where all the managers from each country in the region would take part and also forming global teams which would In turn pay visits to subsidiaries on a frequent basis all around the world which would help the company transfer knowledge in a better way because face to face interaction between individuals facilitates transfer of knowledge that is experienced based and allows interactive communication, questioning , flexibility and adaptation of policies and strategies. This one on one interaction also creates a sense of belonging in the organization .The emergence of new technology such as the internet , intranet, videoconferencing can also be used by the company in order to link all the subsidiaries and [next page]