All Other Development Methods

Reading was mentioned by many of the subjects as one of the methods they have used to try to develop their intercultural competencies, often in combination with other methods, including mentoring/coaching and training. Many of the quotations seem to reflect that the knowledge gained from reading is largely superficial; for example, dealing with customs for greetings.

Although 10 subjects mentioned training, only five indicated they had ever been through any formal training program dealing with cultural issues. Many who had been sent to work abroad as they climbed the corporate ladder were never given any cultural preparation for those assignments. Even some of those who have never had

intercultural training themselves seem to value it as a development tool for others, offering it to their own employees. Some of those who have had training expressed a

belief that training alone is not sufficient, but it provides a basis for further development. None had participated in training in their current CEO roles.

About one-third of the subjects referenced language as important to developing

intercultural competencies. Several references were to learning a language in order to be effective in a previous foreign assignment.

In addition to analysing the coded data, background data from the questionnaire

regarding additional languages spoken was also analysed. Of the 28 CEOs, only three of the subjects are monolingual, eight speak two languages, five speak three, four speak four, six speak five, and two speak six languages. Another interesting data point from the questionnaire is that 26 of the 28 companies have English as their official language, regardless of what country the headquarters is located in.

Ten quotations referenced learning from past mistakes. However, in analysing the quotations it became apparent that every instance that was more than a passing mention was also coded with a Response-to-Failure code, so they will be discussed in Section 4.5.

Three of the subjects discussed the fact that they were outsiders at an early age, and their perceptions of how that affected them. For two of the subjects, their way of coping seems to have been to become highly sensitive to others, learning to adapt themselves as needed. The third discussed adopting his otherness as an identity, defining himself by being different. Although this is a small subset of the entire group, the quotations on this topic are rich with insight:

"I had a massive ah-hah moment in terms of because someone was asking me why do you end up in all these roles, why is it there seems to be this pattern emerging where you're trying to do these, they're engagement roles, but also these change roles. And I always thought it was just because I was female, and females are perhaps more well equipped to do those sort of roles, but actually we were asked to go back in our childhood and talk about our childhood, and I

spent most of my childhood moving around the UK, so I moved, we moved house because my father worked for a large insurance company that was primarily UK-based but is now global, and he started as a door to door salesman but ended up running marketing for them. And he was clearly

successful and had a relatively fast promotion track. So we moved house every two years, only within the UK. So basically, my life was permanent change growing up, and also the UK at that time... I don't know, countries seemed bigger, transport wasn't quite so great, and therefore people didn't move about quite so much as they do now, and neither were they exposed through media and telecommunications and all that sort of stuff to the differences in different regions. So it was a big to move from the south to the north. There were distinct regional cultures. So clearly to survive this change, one had to really learn to adapt. I found myself embracing accents very quickly, which then...often I'll get in a cab, and the driver will say "are you New Zealand or Australian" or

something and I'm like no but I want to live in America and then I went to live in Paris, and I've got this hotchpotch accent which seems to be now something of a cross between, you know I've never lived in Australia or New Zealand, but I know I've lived in America and I know I've lived in England and very different regions of England, so clearly I've created some sort of ability to adapt, to fit in, to you know almost sound like, to perhaps even imitate, to somehow immerse yourself quite quickly." Sub1 (39:39)

"I was the first child born of another race in [....] the state [...], I was the first Asian - well, non-Caucasian child. So since I was in a permanent culture of change because my father is Chinese and I speak Chinese at home. But when I go out to the street everybody speaks Catalan or Spanish. People are

Caucasian; I’m Asian. People stare at me. I don’t know what happens.... Of course everybody from when I was four years old and I go to school - not now but maybe until ten years ago - from three years to twenty-eight… and when there started to come to Spain more immigrants from China especially or from other places. So this feeling of trying to adapt myself to the place that I am is something that I have since I was a child." Sub17 (257:273)

“Oh yes. I had painful… for me, very painful dislocation. I remember… first of all, if you think about the British climate, a childhood full of memories of the smells of things, the greenery, being outdoors. When I went to [a state in the US] which is a desert and dry and hot, I remember as a 10 year old, becoming convinced that I had lost the sense of smell. And of course, as a child they didn’t realize that there’s a reason for that that dry air doesn’t carry fragrance the same way that moist air does. So I literally wasn’t smelling things but as a 10 year old, I thought that there was somehow… I'd become deficient. But on top of that, I remember being raised with the certain courtesy and gentility in Great Britain that was non-existent in [this state]. And it was sort of very coarse and very… it was a difficult, it was a jarred transition. And my parents were all preoccupied with their own lives so as a child, there wasn’t much support to navigate what was different.... In fact if I think about it [back in the UK], we were very unusual to be American. I remember my last year at that school, my father was selected to address the student body and he was selected because he was an American military officer and that was considered very special. So we were… I was sort of an outsider even in the UK and then definitely an outsider once we came to [the US].” Sub20 (55:63)

“I think part of the… it’s so hard to separate the… I don’t know how personalized you get in this interview but the separation… the difference

between the cultural differences and my sexuality which the irony of course was that being different as a child is terrible anyway. I had this additional secret that I was keeping so I always remember sort of additional level of intensity around feeling like an outsider." Sub20 (67:67)

"So that was an issue. I also think… at this point in my life, I sort of developed an appreciation for my difference. I look at my siblings. I had three siblings at the time, they were very eager to assimilate into American culture very quickly. They lost their English accent within a matter of years. I kept mine and I think part of this because I was older so that speech pattern was more engrained but the other part was that I quickly decided to turn my difference into an identity and maintained that for many more years after that." Sub20 (75:75)

Three other development methods identified in very small numbers in the data (but which may nevertheless merit further research) are studying abroad, a personal desire for a global experience, and formal assessments.

In total, four subjects mentioned that they had studied abroad, either at degree-level or as a foreign exchange student. Within this sample, this code could be merged with work/live abroad. However, with a larger sample, it could be a useful variable for comparison.

Although there are only two instances in the data of subjects discussing formal assessments of any sort, this still may have some significance, since both quotations are associated with a number of competency codes. Both subjects attributed using assessment to learning or insights.

Finally, two of the subjects credited their long-time personal desire to explore the world with their development, and in both cases it was that personal desire, not a solid business strategy, that drove their businesses towards global expansion. Although there is not enough in the current data to explore it in-depth here, this could also be an interesting area for further research, especially among Born Globals.