Choosing Managers for Your Overseas Operations

If you're conducting your own search for a bicultural manager, the best place to look is probably among the U.S. ranks of companies that have already been overseas. "[You'll find] a staggering number of repatriates who are looking for work after coming back to the United States with a lot of international experience," says Foster.

Finding a suitable candidate may be as simple as contacting the outplacement offices of large multinational corporations. These offices help find new jobs for departing employees, including former overseas managers who have come home and haven't reintegrated with their U.S. companies. You can also find management talent by reading and advertising in trade journals and networking at industry gatherings.

However you find them, these former international managers will likely be more numerous and more motivated than either managers in your home office, who may be satisfied in their current positions, or candidates in a foreign country, who probably have never heard of your firm.

This article was originally published in the October 1997 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: From A Distance.