The McKinsey Quarterly recently published their survey results on “Why multinationals struggle to manage talent“. Their result highlights the challenges that multinational firms are facing when it comes to managing global talent, and more importantly, how it can reflect on their financial results.

International assignments enable firms to achieve greater cultural diversity, innovation through better understanding of their target customers, enabling knowledge transfer between divisions as well as further development of company talent. Yet, many employees don’t view overseas experience as valuable career path, mostly due to the way companies handle international assignments. Based on their survey, McKinsey indicates that those who have done well in managing their global talent have the following best practices:

• Top management encourages people to get experience in multiple business units/locations across organizations
• Overseas experience is regarded as a prerequisite to promotion to senior level within organizations
• Managers are willing to or are offered incentives to lose their talented employees to other divisions, functions or geographies within the company

Along these lines, also check out Kai-Fu Lee’s (President of Google Greater China) Carnegie Mellon presentation “Google China — Can a Multinational Internet Company Succeed in China?” on YouTube. He discusses Google’s success in China and highlights key factors to their continued performance. During the presentation, you will also gain great insights into challenges awaiting companies entering China.