Heidrick & Struggles convened two CEO roundtables in India, one in New Delhi and one in Mumbai. The purpose of the two events was to bring together some 40 leading company CEOs and top executives, both Indian and foreign, to gain an insight of emerging market challenges

1. Heidrick & Struggles
CEO Roundtable:
Infrastructure Sector
The
Challenge
of Expatriate
Talent in
Emerging
Markets
2090202 - The Challenge of Expatriate Talent in Emerging Markets_JAK V3 no tracked changes_v5.indd 1 08/10/2012 05:08

2. Heidrick & Struggles CEO Roundtable: Infrastructure Sector
Over the next 25 years, the world is expected to invest be culturally sensitive and open to adapting the way
as much as US$40 trillion in infrastructure including they do business. Foreign businesses that arrive and
roads, railways, airports, water treatment and electric attempt to impose their systems and processes on a
power. In this environment of global growth in the local partner will find the market extremely challenging.
sector, the engineering, infrastructure, and construction
companies that serve it – both multinationals operating In India, they recognize the need for talent to help
globally and the domestic companies that compete take steps towards change in terms of infrastructure
with them – will find themselves facing significant development. This need is in both a technical capacity
challenges, especially in emerging markets. in terms of project management methodologies —
albeit Indian engineering is now a world-leading
To explore those challenges, Heidrick & Struggles talent pool in this area — and more importantly, in
convened two CEO roundtables in India, one operational excellence and business leadership skills.
in New Delhi and one in Mumbai. The purpose It is important for local businesses to understand the
of the two events was to bring together some key differentiators that foreign JV partners bring to
40 leading company CEOs and top executives, a joint venture. Simply engaging a partner from an
both Indian and foreign, to gain an insight into established market does not guarantee success.
two principal emerging market challenges;
Second, give thought to expectations relating to
• How do foreign businesses successfully return on investment. In general, the mindset ‘This is
expand into emerging markets and joint India,’ (a phrase used regularly by some of our Indian
ventures (JV) with partners?, and CEOs) indicates a belief that growth and profitability
are short-term outcomes and therefore not typically
• What are the attractions of emerging
markets to high potential talent? measured. Instead, real success in an emerging market
requires a medium- to long-term approach. The need
to build trust and partnership is essential and takes a
substantial amount of time in many regions. In India,
a willingness to shoulder risk and act as a true partner
How do foreign businesses is essential to success. Those businesses prepared
successfully expand into to invest time in building that trust see the greatest
success in building robust, long-lasting partnerships.
emerging markets and joint
Third, go in with your eyes open. Many of our Indian
ventures with partners? CEOs recognized the difficulty of doing business in
As established markets continue to diminish in terms their country. Regulation and bureaucracy have as
of growth, our clients increasingly look to make much impact on their businesses as foreign talent.
the transition from national to international and It is essential that there is an understanding of the
international to global. There is no lack of opportunity! complexity and challenge associated with a move into
In India today, the infrastructure sector accounts an emerging market. These risks can be commercial,
for nearly 27 percent of the country’s industrial logistical and cultural, and all of them can be mitigated
output. Over the next five years, it is expected that through the right leadership and JV partner.
the country will require more than US$1 trillion in
infrastructure investment. Meanwhile, much of the
rest of the developing world will also be investing
heavily in infrastructure. Like China, many countries
in emerging markets will make such investment the
What are the attractions to high
centerpiece of their economic growth strategies. potential talent?
When we put this question to our panel of CEOs, The war for talent is intense. Let us not forget that
there were a number of interesting conclusions. while the emerging markets are increasing their
demand for talent, some more advanced economies
First, be careful which markets you label ‘emerging.’ need to refurbish their aging infrastructures. The
Ninety percent of the CEOs involved in our discussion European Commission estimates that in order to stay
perceived their markets as ‘established.’ This, because of competitive, the European Union will need to invest as
recent shifts in the established markets due to recession, much as US$2.8 trillion in infrastructure over the next
means that the more established emerging markets decade. This means that the fierce competition for
now regard the growth opportunities in their markets infrastructure talent around the world will only intensify.
as outweighing the risks. This notion also impacts
their view of a JV partner. They look to their partner to
2 The Challenge of Expatriate Talent in Emerging Markets
2090202 - The Challenge of Expatriate Talent in Emerging Markets_JAK V3 no tracked changes_v5.indd 2 08/10/2012 05:08

3. Further, the skills required of that talent have become connect with a mentor, and receive a map of key players.
increasingly more complex as governments have They should have early exposure to people who best
transferred investment and operational risk from embody the culture of the organization; people who
the public to the private sector. While there is often can give advice about how best to communicate and
an abundance of technical talent, there is a far more get things done. They should quickly become familiar
limited pool of leadership and organizational talent with not only management team peers and reports, but
required to build a long-term enterprise – to lead also with key influencers and decision-makers in and
projects of staggering complexity, to introduce outside the company such as key customers, regulators,
operational excellence and good governance government officials, and the like. Onboarding
and, in some instances, to grow a business from should also include assistance with personal concerns
$100 million to $1 billion virtually overnight. like housing, banking, social clubs and schools.
So what are the benefits to high-potential In our experience providing leadership consulting
candidates of making a move into an emerging services in the sector, we have found that it is
market, and what will it take to attract them to a far less risky to establish formal and consistent
specific locale? When we looked into Heidrick & induction processes across the organization, and
Struggles’ successful placements in these markets, to comprehensively onboard these expatriates,
we came across a number of common themes. than to leave their success to chance. The costs
associated with a floundering or failed expatriate
First, not all emerging markets have the same executive can be high in terms of salary, and
drivers, so positioning them all the same would relocation costs, and, more importantly, in terms
be a mistake. Talent that is adept at rapid growth of the success of a project or business.
and business building may not be as suitable
for a role that requires medium- to long-term Heidrick & Struggles has created an assessment tool
growth through exceptional stakeholder skills. which can help ascertain the risk of failure. It has
been built on data mined from information regarding
Most importantly, there is recognition that in the current senior level placements across multiple industries
global economy, in order for talent to reach the top, and regions, and identifies eight key factors.
they will need to have spent some part of their career
in an emerging market. While transferring within an Company Geographic Culture
organisation can afford the comfort of a degree of Executive Level Scope of the Role
familiarity in relation to systems and procedure, there Company Type Company Culture
can still be profound implications around adapting to Category – Industry Function
cultural nuances both personally and professionally.
If three of these factors are different in the newly-
The assumption that because a business leader has appointed role, the likelihood of the executive leaving
performed well in other markets they will be able to within 18-24 months is fifty percent. If the number of
adapt to the highly entrepreneurial, fluid dynamic differences increases to five factors, then the chance of
of an emerging market does not always ring true. failure increases to eighty percent. Hidden costs can be
Our panel of CEOs, both foreign and Indian, outlined high as well; damage to the company’s brand, missed
instances where senior-level leaders with a history of market opportunities, loss of investor or government
overseas experience found it quite hard to integrate, confidence and the reservations planted in the minds
and consequently failed in the Indian market. In each of future candidates for the position. Over the last five
case, the consensus was that the failure was due years, many Heidrick & Struggles’ clients have been
primarily to a lack of proper attention given to the able to bring this number down to fifteen percent by
cultural nuances of the country or the softer side of implementing our detailed onboarding program.
onboarding. In most cases, their onboarding focused
exclusively on business matters, with little or no Successful induction is however, a two-way street.
attention given to the integration of the family unit Not only must the companies take care to acculturate
and building a proper support network around them. expatriates, the executives themselves must make
every effort to do so as well. As the roundtable
To ensure success, onboarding should include a candid participants agreed, one of the surest ways for
discussion about expectations, and the company should expatriates to derail is by attempting to impose
provide a balanced view of their culture in the country, the norms of their previous locale or their own
including its reporting structure, style of decision- cultural assumptions on the business or country.
making, communication and social dynamics. Well
before the start date, the new team member should
have informal conversations with colleagues-to-be,
Heidrick & Struggles 3
2090202 - The Challenge of Expatriate Talent in Emerging Markets_JAK V3 no tracked changes_v5.indd 3 08/10/2012 05:08

4. Heidrick & Struggles CEO Roundtable: Infrastructure Sector
Reducing human capital risk and CEO Roundtable Participants
increasing opportunity The Heidrick & Struggles CEO Roundtable events in
New Delhi and Mumbai were facilitated by leadership
Getting the human capital equation right in India and
consultant Gareth McIlroy (Singapore) with Engineering,
other emerging markets offers significant business
Construction & Infrastructure Practice leaders Charles
advantages. As with other kinds of capital, the
Commander (Atlanta), Stafford Bagot (Singapore),
challenge is to balance risk and opportunity. As one
Jamie Page (London), and Ashwin Saboo (New Delhi).
CEO of a multinational remarked, his company would
Companies represented at the roundtables included:
like consistently to minimize the risks associated with
moving people across borders and into emerging • Afcons Infrastructure Ltd
markets, just as domestic companies in those markets • Akzo Nobel Coatings India Pvt Ltd
• ALSTOM India & South Asia/Alstom T&D India Ltd
wish to minimize the risks associated with taking
• Amplus Infrastructure Developers
on expatriates. The ability to minimize those risks • CLP Power India Pvt Ltd
through comprehensive onboarding, acculturation and • Era Landmarks (India) Ltd
leadership coaching provide both Indian and non-Indian • Gammon India Ltd
companies with a significant strategic opportunity: • Global Wind Power Ltd
• Grocon Pty Ltd
the building of a standalone enterprise designed not
• Halcrow India (a CH2M Hill Company)
just to chase capital flows around the globe, but also • Hindustan Construction Co Ltd
to capitalize on the long-term promise of India. • ICICI Venture Funds Management Company Ltd
• IL&FS Maritime Infrastructure Company Ltd (IMICL)
Historically, many non-Indian companies have • Inorbit Malls (India) Pvt Ltd (subsidiary of K Raheja Corp)
approached the market and cultural challenges of India • Interarch Building Products Pvt Ltd
by either making a strategic acquisition or entering into • IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd
• Isolux Corsan India Engineering & Construction Pvt Ltd
a joint venture with a local entity. The foreign company
• Jaypee Infratech
received the benefits of local executives or partners, • JINDAL Water Infrastructure Ltd and JINDAL Urban
and the Indian company got access to world-class Infrastructure Ltd
capabilities or, in the case of acquisitions, was simply • JSW Severfield Structures Ltd (JSSL)
absorbed into a global organization. However, study • Kalpataru Power Transmissions Ltd
• KazStroyService Group/ KazStroy Service Infrastructure
after study of mergers & acquisitions (M&A) puts the
Knight Frank India Pvt Ltd
failure rate of international M&A at fifty percent or • Lanco Infratech Ltd
more, usually because of poor integration of the two • Leighton Contractors (India) Pvt Ltd
companies. International joint ventures in emerging • Macquarie Capital (India) Pvt Ltd
markets fail at similarly high rates, often because • Punj Lloyd Ltd
• Reliance Infrastructure Ltd
of such issues as poor communication, lack of local
• Saint- Gobain Gyproc India Ltd
legal knowledge, intellectual property disputes and • Sanzoi Group/Sanzoi Consulting Pvt Ltd
divergent objectives. Moreover, it is often hard for • Shapoorji Pallonji Infrastructure Capital Company Ltd
either party to find the right partner in the first place. • Synefra Engineering & Construction Ltd (fka Suzlon
Infrastructure Ltd)
Given those unpromising prospects for success,
companies that can attract world-class talent and
integrate it thoroughly into their business and
culture will enjoy a distinct advantage over their
more shortsighted competitors in India and other
emerging markets. This success requires only the Heidrick & Struggles is the leadership advisory firm
fortitude to resist the exclusive focus on short-term providing senior-level executive search and leadership
results, the willingness to devote the same attention consulting services. For almost 60 years we have been
to human capital as to other forms of investment, and building deep relationships with the world’s most
the talent management skills to make it work. n talented individuals on behalf of the world’s most
successful companies. Through the strategic acquisition,
development, and retention of talent we help our clients
– from the most established market giants to the newest
market disruptors – build winning leadership teams.
www.heidrick.com
2090202
4 The Challenge of Expatriate Talent in Emerging Markets
2090202 - The Challenge of Expatriate Talent in Emerging Markets_JAK V3 no tracked changes_v5.indd 4 08/10/2012 05:08