The first two reports from the annual HSBC Expat Explorer Survey for 2010 were recently published online: The Expat Economics and Expat Experience reports. They reveal a wealth of information on the economic and daily life situations expats face in 25 countries. The data is based on the responses of over 4,000 expats (RW3 CultureWizard was happy to help spread the word about the survey in our May issue of the CultureWizard Digest).

Here are some interesting findings from the Expat Experience report:

+ 25% of expats found “adapting to culture,” especially in the BRIC countries, a top concern
+ The most prevalent challenges was “re-establishing a social life,” which 41% found to be true
+ Thailand comes out at the top in terms of expat lifestyle
+ Countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Russia scored high for expat finances, but performed badly on quality of life rankings
+ Europeans prove to be the least friendly to expats

And, from the Expat Economics report:
+ Emerging economies remain on top for expat finances
+ Russia is home to the wealthiest expats, followed by the Middle East
+ The BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are emerging as expat hotspots
+ Expats are repatriating a significant proportion of their wealth

In contrast to Europe being unfriendly to expats, “the results of the survey suggest that ease of learning the local language and adapting to the local culture are areas that the United States fares well as an expat destination.”

Click on the links above to read the survey reports. If you’re an expat, please share your experiences by commenting on this post. We love to hear about the best and the worst parts of being an expatriate, no matter where you are!

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard

With a title like “A Distressing Virtual Reality: 40 Percent of Dispersed Teams Underperform,” Chief Learning Officer raises awareness of an issue that potentially affects many of us. RW3 CultureWizard’s Virtual Teams Survey Report 2010 is the base of the argument targeting virtual work as something we must learn to be good at, and not something we can easily compare with face-to-face interaction.

An article in the Washington Post notes the growing dominance of Wal-Mart stores in countries outside the US.

The company…opened its annual shareholder meeting last week with Bollywood-style dancers, Asian balancing acts and Brazilian martial artists representing some of the 14 foreign countries in which Wal-Mart operates. Last year, its international division topped $100 billion in sales for the first time and this year it is expected to surpass the United States in number of stores.

We’ve written about the company’s successes and failures in countries around the world, and it has learned to embrace the cultures of its customers in a truly robust fashion. Ultimately, Wal-Mart has found a way to bring value to its global audience in a culturally aware way, which has influenced its success.

Have you been to a Wal-Mart business outside of the US? We’d love to hear about your thoughts on the approach the discount retailer takes and its reputation in the countries it currently operates in, e.g. Argentina, China, Mexico and the UK. Let us know what you think.

Click here to read the full article, “As growth in U.S. slows, Wal-Mart puts more emphasis on foreign stores”.

Paul

RW3 CultureWizard

Read an article by Sean Dubberke of RW3 CultureWizard, titled Culture and Communication 101, which made the front cover of this month’s Mobility magazine. Below is a synopsis from the editors.

“Behavior and communication are interpreted through a cultural filter. As global thinkers with international and multicultural experiences increasingly interact with each other in the business world, opportunities for misunderstanding and communication breakdowns increase. Dubberke offers methods for identifying cultural clues among your colleagues and clients and how to best use them for addressing communication issues.”

RW3 CultureWizard

A CNN report emphasizes that there is much to learn from business leaders in India.

“In terms of lessons for managers elsewhere, one of the most important things is that Indian leaders lead with a sense of social purpose,” said Peter Cappelli, professor of management at Wharton University of Pennsylvania.

“He said every leader interviewed gave a specific social purpose as being the goal of their business. Those purposes ranged from improving healthcare in India, to getting cell phones to people who don’t have access to communication tools, and proving to the international community that Indian companies can lead in IT.”

Motivation in India tends to be fueled by social purpose, along with the well-being of one’s family and work-life balance. Building this purpose into the mission or function of each person’s role within a company reaps true benefits in India. However, would this motivate workers in other parts of the world?

Training and development is also a very important part of working at an Indian firm. “IT firms typically allocate 60 days of formal training for new hires and companies often spend months training even experienced workers hired from other firms.” Given the surge in offshoring and outsourcing over the past years, intercultural and language training have surely been a large part of this.

The article also states that U.S. companies don’t invest in their employees as they do in India, considering the lost investment should the employee quit. Does your organization invest heavily in training and development? What are the expectations of new hires? What kind of training options are on offer?

Click here to read the CNN article online.

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Read about Charlene Solomon and Michael Schell’s book, Managing Across Cultures: The Seven Keys to Doing Business with a Global Mindset, in Re:locate Magazine, a website for HR and Relocation professionals.

Paul

RW3 CultureWizard

The HSBC Expat Explorer Survey for 2009 was released last week. The survey is now in its second year and gathered information from over 3,100 expats in over 50 countries. What were the general results?

* Canada is #1 overall place to live as an expatriate
* Australia comes in at #2 and Thailand at #3
* China, UK, Russia and India scored poorly for quality of life
* In terms of making local friends, UAE was at the top and Brazil at the bottom
* Expats joined the most local community groups in Singapore, and the least in Bahrain

* In general, expats experience a higher quality of life
* Large salaries and a high standard of living aren’t mutually exclusive

Most interestingly, “…the luckiest expats for finding love were found in Thailand – some 47% admit finding love since moving to the country. This is in stark contrast to the worldwide average of just 20%.” Since the experience is different for everyone, it would be interesting to see a detailed breakdown of responses according to respondents’ country of origin. This could help readers understand how the results would match their own national and cultural background.

Where have you had the best and/or worst expatriate experience? How has culture played a role in your experience?

Paul

RW-3.com

In an effort to recapture the revenue growth the Indian offshore industry experienced before the world economic crisis, many are expanding their service offerings, according to the Wall Street Journal. Companies like InfoSys Technologies and Wipro are competing with big competitors like HP to expand their contracts with “end-to-end outsourcing packages.” Indian executives have expressed that there is a lot of learning involved in the expansion of their organizations, and a lot of it is done on the fly.

How will the persistent issue of client and vendor cultures, and their abundant variations, affect the quality of even larger contracts with companies around the world? Will Indian vendors be able to cope with their increased demands?

Click here to read the full article online.

Paul

rw-3.com

The World Clock Meeting Planner is probably one of the easiest ways to coordinate a global virtual meeting. This should come in handy for anyone working globally.

Here’s its description: “Need to make a call to someone far away? Need to arrange a videoconference, telephone- or net-based meeting with several people spread around the globe? This utility should help you find a convenient time, so that no one has to be up during the middle of the night.”

Paul

rw-3.com

+ If you were to think about the most important cultural attributes that you will see operating in business in Angola, they would be:

- Hierarchical structures
- Formal style
- Interpersonal relationships
- Indirect communication

+ Angolans believe that there is always time to develop social relationships. Since personal relationships are important, people who attempt to adhere to inflexible time schedules have little success.

+ As indirect communicators, Angolans often use proverbs to provide a shared context and share their innermost thoughts and feelings. Here are a few, indicative of traditional Angolan values:

- The real journey of discovery begins in old age.
- The one who throws the stone forgets; the one who is hit remembers forever.
- One spoon of soup in need has more value than a pot of soup when we have an abundance of food.

+ Like most Africans, Angolans view time as something that adjusts to changing needs and circumstances. They believe that people should always have time for what really matters in life — family and friends.

- from RW3′s CultureWizard™ Country Profiles

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