who are you?

According to the statistics of the blog site, the majority of the people who read this blog are Americans but there also readers from 14 other countries. I assume the Americans are mostly relatives - I certainly have a lot of them. I also have a good idea who the readers from China, Japan and Australia are (friends and colleagues who know I blog) but those of you in other places - I am curious. I am not asking for ID, I just find it interesting how people come to read an anonymous blog like this. An odd thing for me to be read in places I have never been - like Croatia..........

Going around the world - alone but with a friend

Later today I will leave on a 12 day round the world trip that will find me in Swtizerland, Shanghai, Sichuan Province China  (Yibin and Chengdu), Jiangxi Province, Shanghai (again), Tokyo and Ellicottville NY. Many who travel overseas frequently have mixed emotions about such itineraries.  The places sound exotic but unless you get outside the airport to hotel to meeting to airport to hotel..... grind; an around the world trip is just long and tiring.

I have had the good fortune to enjoy my long trips largely because after many years, I feel I am going to see friends rather than just people I do business with. Many of my meeting in Asia are conducted in non standard
venues - hiking trails, golf courses, unusual restaurants, bars, etc. I try to keep my time in traditional meeting rooms to a minimum.

I love seeing the mountains in Switerland and experiencing the energy of Shanghai. Sichuan province has more majestic mountains than Switzerland and is the Panda capital of the world. Chengdu is a wonderful city with a rapidly improving quality of life, great restaurants and friendly, relaxed people.  Jiangxi Province is also an emerging part of China. On my first trip there several years ago, we drove on a new expressway and had to dodge water buffalo that decided the warm pavement was too comfortable to resist. Of course, I am very anxious to return to Tokyo. My last trip was just before the earthquake and tsunami. My company placed a travel ban on Japan for a few weeks and even today I still had to get special permission to go. Japan is like a second home. I really want to see how my friends are doing.

For the most part I travel alone - meeting old and new friends in each city. Despite being "alone" in between stops - I do have a travel companion. My Patagonia "maximum legal carry-on" has been my only travel bag since it was given to me on my birthday in 1998. After over 100 around the world trips and visits to every continent (save the polar); my MLC is looking quite tattered.

My normal flying uniform is black jeans,  an "Icebreaker" merino wool "sweater t shirt" (which I buy in Australia and come in several weights to sccomodate all temperature levels) and black ASICS running shoes. Although most people dress casually these days on long flights, the average business traveler will carry a neat samsonite rolling bag or equivalent.  They don't look like a lost backpacker from the 70s. I occasionally get raised eyebrows when I enter a first class lounge and present my boarding pass. Only my new leather Tumi computer bag betrays my lost backpacker appearance.

I have plopped my MLC down next to royalty (literally), actors, politicians, famous professional sports figures in first class lounges all over the world. It is interesting how there seems to be a camraderie in the overseas first class lounge. I have spoken to people that likely wouldn't have given me the time of day if they saw me on the street or in a restaurant. I say overseas because I haven't had the same experiences in the US - people seem in too much of a rush most of the time although I did speak to an aging star of the TV show "Dallas" in the Cinncinati lounge once.....

Three years ago I purchased the new version of the Patagonia MLC. Unfourtunately I don't live near a Patagonia store so I purchased it over the internet after only seeing glossy pictures on the website. Much to my disappointed the new version was like being downgraded on US Airways - the ultimate bottom. Smaller, with less robust construction, and straps more suited for a kindergarten's daypack; the "new" MLC sits in my closet collecting dust and I continue to make minor repairs to my 14 year old MLC - fearing for the day it will no longer be able to travel with me.

Odds are "50 - 50"

Many companies send ex-pats to be to an outside company for evaluation of their suitability to live in another culture. My entire family went through an evaluation process before we left for Japan in 2000. After suitability tests and one on one counseling; ideally both the company and the prospective expat get a better idea of their odds of success in a foreign culture. The new ex-pat also learns that the odds of staying more than one year with the same company after repatriation is less than 50%. Reasons given for this phenomena vary....  the expat changes, receiving an interesting job assignment upon return is the exception rather than the rule, the "sponsor" that sent the ex-pat has moved to a different division or a different company, less freedom, etc etc.

Confronted with these statistics, normally the expat tries to get the names of former ex-pats within the company to see how their company performs on the retention issue. I was not an exception to this  "rule" and neither was my company - I checked the the company ex-pat alum population; about 50% stayed with the company more than one year after returning.

By the time the expat in waiting realizes the odds of a successful return are limited, it is usually too late to change course - the plans are made, the family is getting excited about the move, and the replacement for the current job may already have been announced. In short, getting "cold feet" is rarely an option. In my case; I believed to opportunity far exceeded the risk.

In most cases, the expat quickly forgets the potential long term career issues and focuses on the long "to do" list that needs to be completed before departing for the new "homeland".

The move is made. The first six months to a year are a whirlwind of adjustment - strange language (in most cases), different living conditions, new friends, new schools, new colleagues. About the end of the first year when close relationships with ex-pats from other companies, countries and cultures are established; a picture emerges. The ex-pat world has a natural diversity - a melting pot of countries, languages, cultures, etc but in most cases; expats work for multinational corporations that tend to behave in similar fashion. Benefits and ex-pat "premiums" may differ but big companies have a similar modus operandi and the major concern is naturally - the business not the ex-pat. Big companies tend to have a mix of long term ex-pats and short term ex-pats. Long term ex-pats are valued for the ability to change countries often, get things running or fix problems and then move on. Short term ex-pats are often overseas for "career development". In many cases; this means they hopefully develop a broader perspective on the world but often don't contrbute much to the business while they are on assignment.

My company is a small multinational - there was 1 of me in Japan vs 124 ex-pats at P&G when I arrived.
I found out over the years that my experience would be different than my ex-pat friends at P&G and Caterpillar. Better in some ways; not as easy in other ways. I had more freedom and my boss was 7,000 miles away but I had almost no local support and had to get things done on my own. Getting an apartment and a cell phone was tough for a one person foreign office. I adjusted and eventually embraced the freedom I had. I worked with our local joint venture partners and developed new business. I talked to my boss about once a quarter. He visited for a few days a couple times a year. Sales and profits doubled and then doubled again. The family had a great time. I didn't think about going back to the US.

You learn that the long term ex-pat has a different outlook from the "3 year" standard assignment ex-pat. The short term expat tends to be less concerned about learning the local language and more concerned about getting home for Christmas and home leave. The long term expat often dreads the day they are "called home" and, in the increasingly global world, often jumps ship and joins another company rather than moving home. The short timer often never leaves home emotionally and keeps one eye on the company "intra-net" for likely next jobs at HQ.

My family lived overseas almost 11 years. We called two very different countries and living environments home. We tried to embrace both cultures from the beginning and never went "home" for Christmas but oddly I never considered myself a long term ex-pat. Time flew by, my daughters grew from little girls to young women, graduated from high school and moved back to the US for college. My hair color changed to "distinguished". My 10K time slowed.

We were away long enough that moving "home" seemed very much like the other two ex-pat moves. Except for the language, moving to the US had much the same feeling that moving to Shanghai  from Kobe did in 2005.

While I was "out" for 11 years, the company changed significantly My "sponsor" moved on; I had 4 US based bosses during my time away. Even though I came back to the same division within the company; the environment is very different. We have a new CEO - the first "outsider" in the 125 year history of the company. The outsider brought in many of his former colleagues and now the outsiders are insiders running the company. A bit of a trojan horse takeover. My ex-pat experience should have prepared me for all the change on the home front.

I am still only five months into my repatriaion experience. I am not sure whether I will be one of the 50% that stays or goes.