What international skills make future business leaders at board level?

In this episode, Lyndsey talks with Christine Raynaud, a board member of the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. She is passionate about transforming people's lives with better jobs, training and education, and has been mentoring and advising various HRTech and Education ventures in Asia.

The conversation starts with recent trend of board skills requirements. Christine explains the difference between hard skills and soft skills, and the ultimate board roles of governance and compliance drive recent years trend of board skills requirement and development. Christine reviews the board skills requirement changes over the years due to globalization, and pointed out with the new challenge caused by COVID 19, vaccine development and deployment, new trend of nationalism, board need to look into skills needed to guide organization’s global strategy. 

Christine shares her prospect of talent acquisition challenges for international companies with the ever-complicated globalization journey, and pointed out that organization board needs to re-evaluation globalization vs. localization strategy with international mindset. She points out that future board skills will focus more on soft skills, global business mentality, understanding the importance to empower and reward local management team, respect local business practice and regulation, and open for innovation ideas on technology, management and corporate governance models.

Christine reviews western international company’s global expansion journey with centralized talent management models, she points out how international company can deploy the home country model 40 years ago does not working any more due to emerging market countries regulation establishment, and compliance requirements today. Christine suggests that Asia multinationals are 40 years behind Western’ international journey, therefore, Asian companies can learn from western experience. She also shares the challenges of European Chamber of Commerce when helping member companies expanding business in Asian market.

Christine emphasizes that business mindset difference is the biggest obstacles for Asian multinational company’s globalization journey, using a real business story from her own executive search firm. She recommends that future global leader for China multinational firms need international business mindset, and education system should facilitate this enhancement. At the end, Christine suggests future international business leaders to have plenty of patient, determination, modesty, friendships with realism for the on-going international growing journey. 

Conversation Highlights (with timestamps)

• Recent year’s board skill requirement trends – hard skills vs. soft skills (6:10)
• Board skills needed with today’s globalization & nationalism & supply chain relocation challenges (11:00)
• Review Western companies internationalization journey and talent strategy during the journey (16:57)
• Trend of International executive resigning in Asia market due to International market changes (24:40)
• What can be learnt by corporate board from challenges of international firms’ business strategy and talent strategy (26:20)
• Board renumeration committee need to focus more on talent strategy in international market (26:15)
• Asian & Chinese multinational companies’ current status is 40-50 years behind (29:30)
• Asian & Chinese companies talent challenges and how to overcome from western experience (32:00)
• Whatever talent strategy is a better way (37:15)
• Asia business practice difference due to culture difference (40:15)
• Why it’s important to respect other countries culture and business practice (45:10)
• How European Chamber of Commerce in HongKong help member companies to grow in Asia market (53:20)
• How to groom future international business leaders (58:50)

Guest Contact Information

Christine Raynaud

Email: [email protected]

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raynaudchristine/