Heidrick's Miles: Global Players Challenge U.S. Heidrick & Struggles recently released its first-ever Global Talent Index, which examined not only if the U.S. will maintain its top talent position, but what factors are simultaneously helping other countries succeed where the U.S. is failing. Stephen Miles, a managing partner in Heidrick & Struggles' leadership consulting business, spoke with Consulting about the study, and the global implications of the Chicago-based executive search firm's new data.
Consulting: What were some of the key findings from the survey?
Miles: We used to think about the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) as this grouping. And I think there are what the study demonstrated to us is that it needs to be separated with Brazil and Russia really dropping significantly. And I think there are a couple of reasons around it: Russia's education system has continued to erode from what was once I think one of the best in the world. It continues to not be invested in at the same level. Plus there's political instability there because people don't really know if it's truly an open economy or whether it's just semi-open or whether it's just going to close. From a Brazil perspective, you have language barriers and you have some mobility barriers because it's a Portuguese-speaking country and they don't have the proximity to the U.S. like Mexico does, and they don't have the free trade agreement with the U.S. like Mexico does.
When you look at India and China, a couple of really interesting things: I think India has a wonderful education system. Secondly, it may have been a bad thing at one time, but much of India is English-speaking because of the British having its domination of the world early on, but that's become an incredible benefit because [India's] workforce is largely English speaking, and they're highly mobile and they're highly educated. And those people are either going to different parts of the world or developing local companies now. And China probably has the largest workforce in the world, and I think they're very selectively opening their doors, and they're getting a lot of foreign direct investment. I can't think of a company that doesn't have a China strategy or at least is in China right now. And secondly, they have a strong education system, so they're able to produce engineers and other high professionals into their labor force.
Consulting: What does this mean for the U.S.?
Miles: We can't be complacent. Obviously the study says we're first now, and we're first at the end of the study in 2012. Especially from a consulting point of view, our labor market is built on being able to attract and retain the best and brightest. If you highlight some of our great companies today, like if you look at Google, Sergey Brin came from Russia, if you look at eBay, Pierre Omidyar came from France. We've built some of the greatest companies, especially some of the newer companies, on the backs, if you will, of being able to attract, retain and develop the best talent in the world. Post 9/11, what has happened is our labor market's become incredibly more restrictive, especially at the high professional level, which is H1B1 visas, and we've severely restricted those. Can you imagine a world where Google, eBay and Yahoo are all in the U.K. or in some other country that's attracting talent at a better rate and has a more open labor market? And [finally, we need to focus on] keeping our universities strong. We have the best business schools in the world and [we have to keep] those strong and attract a strong international contingent so we have diverse workforces.
Consulting: What does this mean for U.S. companies?
Miles: From a global talent management perspective, it's about [first] what's your ex-pat program and do you have one that's robust, and I think secondly, is that program designed around developing, nurturing and growing local talent, because that's going to be the foundation some of those businesses or business units are built upon. I think one of the most important things that I see with clients today is how do they repatriate that global talent because for us to stay strong as a country and continue to dominate from a business perspective. We need to be able to bring our ex-patriate talent back to the U.S. And what's happened historically is that we've great ex-pat programs, but we haven't monetized the value of that investment by having a good program to bring people back, so I think one of the hotspots for companies is going to be what is their repatriation program, so they get to monetize the value of their investment in ex-pats. The other issue is really developing local leadership. If you look at China, India, Russia, some of the emerging hotspot countries, they don't have seasoned, very deep professional benches in terms of local talent, and I think what we need to do and what companies need to do is spend a lot of time investing in the next generation of leadership that is local so they can then take the business to the next level.
Consulting: What did the study say about the U.K.'s role in the global workplace?
Miles: The U.K. is becoming a force. It's moving up significantly and it's going to threaten the U.S. as the number one country through 2012. They have a wonderful education system, but most importantly they've created a place that talent wants to move to, and they're also growing their own talent. They've created visa programs and other programs to attract the best and brightest sort of a la the U.S. pre-9/11. The greatest threat to the U.S. right now is our restricted high-professional programs around visas and attracting the world's best talent, and if [that talent is] going to migrate to the U.K. and Canada and to other countries that are opening up and really welcoming that talent, we may lose the opportunity for the next Google, the next Yahoo, the next something. For it's size, it fights above its weight
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