»global business«

After all: what is the spirit of Panopa?

Mr. Vieth and Dr. Hucht characterize Panopa's corporate culture as quite open in terms of communication. Critique is usually addressed openly and directly at the person concerned. While in other companies it appears to be quite usual to talk bad behind other people's back, Mr. Vieth and Dr. Hucht claim that they never really experienced any sneaky games at Panopa. They say that their company is simply too small and that positions do not change that fast that it would make sense to play power games. At the same time they believe this open atmosphere to originate from the cultural background of the staff of which most grew up in the Ruhrgebiet. Here communication can often be rather rude but that does not imply that anybody should take it personal. Once things are said and discussed, they are over and done with - no hard feelings. And on the other hand things that are left unspoken, are not to be worried about. And while Mr. Vieth and Dr. Hucht claim this atmosphere to be culturally influenced, they believe it to have been transferred to their Polish stations as well.

("Die Kommunikation hier ist sehr offen. Also, es gibt schon so etwas wie eine Unternehmenskultur, was hebt das Unternehmen von anderen ab. Wobei ich jetzt nicht behaupten möchte, andere machen das nicht so, aber hier wird ein sehr direkter Ton gepflegt. Hier wird auch offen Kritik geübt. Es werden Themen angesprochen, die werden auch zu Ende besprochen, und man guckt sich hinterher auch wieder in die Augen. So Dinge, so hinterum, mit Ellenbogen, Linke rein, Mobbing, das ist hier überhaupt nicht angezeigt. Ich sag's mal ganz platt: hier sagt man sich auch mal auf Augenhöhe mal 'Arschloch', aber hinterher gibt man sich wieder die Hand und sagt: 'Komm. War jetzt auch mal gut, dass wir jetzt mal darüber gesprochen haben, das ist vielleicht auch mal ein bißchen gewittert hat, aber jetzt geht's auch vernünftig wieder weiter.' Und das ist auch so die Mentalität, die da vor Ort aufgebaut wurde. Also, ne offene Kommunikation, die Türen hier sind immer auf, man äußert Kritik, man spricht darüber, vielleicht eher mal ein direktes Wort, aber hinterher arbeitet man auch vernünftig wieder zusammen. Das ist schon auch so ne Besonderheit. Wir sagen auch mal hier und da, das ist so Ruhrgebietsmentalität: sehr direkt und sehr gradlinieg." Dr. Hucht, 2nd 15.53 min.)

("Wir sind hier sehr dezentral organisiert. Die einzelnen Standorte sind weitestgehend autark. [...] Wir sind hier eine Zentralverwaltung für das gesamte Unternehmen, wir haben hier vielleicht 50, 60 Mitarbeiter. [...] Wir sind noch in dem Sinne kein Konzern, wo vielleicht auch eher so Spielchen aufkommen, Machtspielchen und Leutet gegeneinander auszuspielen. Dafür ist die Gruppe hier zu klein. Dafür wird hier dann auch im Kollegenkreis zu viel geredet als dass das einer nicht mitbekommen würde, wenn ein anderer versucht, gegen ihn zu intrigieren." Dr. Hucht, 2nd 17.53 min.)

("Das heißt ja nicht, dass es kein Konkurrenzdenken gibt, aber ich sag mal: es wird wenn dann offen ausgetragen und nicht durch Spielchen und versteckte Nickelichkeiten." Dr. Hucht, 2nd 20:22 min.)
("Wenn man jetzt aus einer anderen Region in Deutschland kommt, ... nicht jeder kommt damit klar ... man muss auch kritikfähig sein. Auch als Vorgesetzter sich der Kritik der Mitarbeiter zu stellen, ist ja nicht einfach. Kann man sicherlich auch nicht jeden Tag gleich gut. Sich überhaupt Kritik zu stellen, ich meine, jeder hört lieber Lob als das ein anderer erzählt, was nicht geklappt hat. Das ist auch nicht einfach. Man muss das vorher wissen, worauf man sich einlässt. Also nicht jeder kommt damit klar." Dr. Hucht, 2nd 20.53 min.)

[p.123] The authors show how diversity at the workplace is increasing: there are more women, more elderly people and more immigrants, just to name the biggest groups that have rushed into the work environment in the past decades.

[p.124] While the diversity in the workplace is a bit off my topic, the authors point out that "professionals from industrialized countries will increasingly interact with the workers of developing countries because of the globalization of world business. E-commerce, the Internet, telecommunications, mass transportation, and interconnected international economies provide a global context for daily human life." Working processes on all levels will include a fragmentation of designing, producing and distributing that might occur in different countries and with a very diverse workforce. For organizations of all sizes that means to not only have subsidiaries but also to establish "strategic alliances through transnational mergers and acquisitions."
[p.127] Facing intercultural encounters organizations have to consider the ethnocentric viewpoint that drives individuals. Having grown up in a specific cultures, we are bound to the belief that it is our very own culture is providing the 'right' answer to any problem. "When people from different cultures work together, their ethnocentrism will result in misunderstandings and low levels of interpersonal attraction." The behaviors of others might often just not make sense to us, which leads to a feeling of discomfort and of losing control. Even when differences overall are perceived to be small people can "be confronted with major communication problems, as they do not expect each other to have different basic assumptions and they may be even less aware of their own and the others' cultural backgrounds."

The authors state that to overcome intercultural problems certain conditions have to be met to promote understanding and the perception of similarity.

• having common superordinate goals
• having frequent contact
• learning the other language
• knowing the other culture

[p.128] Finding similarities, however, does not necessarily mean to overcome all differences. The authors introduce the concepts of the so-called melting-pot aiming at homogeneity and the salad-bowl. The first expects the members of a culture to overcome their differences in favor of a mainstream-culture in terms of language, norms, work ethic, ... Nevertheless "it can be predicted that people are unlikely to totally assimilate." Brewer (1991) uses the term "optimal distinctiveness" to describe the strive to "balance between the forces toward assimilation [...] and differentiation from groups." The model of a salad-bowl assumes that people can preserve their cultural heritage "without interfering with the smooth functioning of the society." The different elements remain unique but add up. It requires from the individuals to understand the causes of different behaviors and to "learn to make attributions concerning the causes of behavior of members of the other culture that are more or less like the attributes that these members make in explaining their own behavior." (based on Triandis, 1975)

[p.129] Introducing different groups which are perceived as minorities, the authors come up with the following conclusions. [p.130] "Major issues facing [...] minorities are discrimination, availability of fewer opportunities for career advancement, lack of role models and mentors. [... S]election processes and tendencies towards homogeneity impede selection, promotion, integration, and advancement."

[p.135] As the authors understand the problems emerging from diversity they state quite nicely the advantages of which I only want to name a few:

• To retain the best talent necessary to remain competitive.
• To improve community and public support for the company's business agenda.
• To present themselves in the best possible way as a socially conscious organization committed to diversity and justice.
• To attract a more diverse clientele.
• To increase the performance of individuals, teams, and organizations.

[p.142] At the end the authors conclude the diversity needs to be handled on three levels: "On an individual level, interactions can be improved by sensitivity-focused tools and valuing differences. On a group level, diverse teams have to be established and supervised, giving them time and opportunities for contact to work out common procedures and goals. On the organizational level, the focus should be on establishing structure [...]."


Corporate Strategies for Managing Diversity in the Global Workplace.
by Dharm P.S. Bhawuk, Astrid Podsiadlowski, Jennifer Graf, and Harry C.Triandis
in: Gerald R. Ferris, M.Ronald Buckley, Donald B. Fedo. Human Resources Management - Perspectives, Context, Functions, and Outcomes. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2002. 4th edition

I mean it is so obvious but still I was not sure if media or a web application in my case could actually help businesses to cross borders. It sure can! :-)

"Technology has permeated every aspect of organizations and has fundamentally redefined the meaning of work. Technology has simultaneously shrunk the world and expanded the boundaries of the organization. Businesses are able to effectively manage local businesses at the global level, and employees are able to participate in teambased work environments without ever leaving home."

[p.67 in: Gerald R. Ferris, M.Ronald Buckley, Donald B. Fedo. Human Resources Management - Perspectives, Context, Functions, and Outcomes. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2002. 4th edition]

Panopa is a logistics company employing more than 1500 people. As a former daughter of Krupp they look back on quite some history and nowadays belong to Imperial, a huge company based in South Africa and via their subsidiaries operating world wide.

I had the opportunity to talk to Mr. Karl Vieth, project manager for logistics at Panopa who has spend several years in Poland, and Dr. Andreas Hucht, division manager planning and consulting who is also responsible for quality management.

Panopa first came to Poland participating in a tender Volkswagen had called for. Volkswagen had decided to put up a factory in Poznań. Consequently they were looking for a service provider who was doing the logistics and was able to jump into the chain of processes. Panopa won the tender and thus went to Poland. Dr. Hucht that this is quite characteristic for contract logistics: they do not put up a network of stations but install different locations for exclusive clients, so-called single-user stations.
Two years ago Panopa revised their entrepreneurial orientation. Based on their first successful expansion into Poland other locations were constructed. They figured this to make sense because they already had a focus on the automotive industry and their clients were moving eastward. Thus Eastern Europe in general has become one of their target markets and Panopa nowadays resides in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. The new concept also includes becoming active in the distributional field: besides the client-tailored programs for Volkswagen in Poznań, they also run a station exclusively for Opel in Gliwice. And a trans-shipment centre in Kattowice.
These stations are not connected in their own network. The people in the lead positions certainly know each other and meet every now and then but they are not institutionally interlinked. This is mostly due to the different tasks each of the stations performs

Strategic Global Human Resources Management in the Twenty-First Century
by Michael Harvey and Nancy K. Napier

[p.42] The authors start off that in a globalized economy the only advantage businesses have is "the uniqueness of their human resources and their system of managing human resources". They understand an effective global organization to be a "repository (Behälter, Fundgrube) of skills, competencies, routines, and dynamic capabilities that are managed by multicultural management teams in a manner difficult for global rivals to replicate". [p.43] Therefore global managers are needed who "possess a complex amalgamation (Vermischung) of technical, functional, cultural, social, and political skills to successfully navigate the intricacies (Feinheiten) of the new global manager responsibilities".

[p.44] Outlining how companies start doing business abroad, they define a little evolution.
[p.45] At first businesses simply check out their potential in the host country. In this phase they completely rely on their home-grown staff. Expatriates hold the key positions and all of the parent organization's structures and processes are transferred unmodified. The advantages of this "exportive or ethnocentric orientation" are obvious. The parent organization remains in full control and promising managers gain international experience.
When the host organization appears to bear enough potential, companies shift to a more "adaptive or polycentric orientation". Host country nationals are employed to manage the business abroad. Human resource management is based on local policies, philosophies, and personnel. All in all the branch office receives more responsibility. Harvey and Napier note that in many countries organizations will directly have to rely on host country nationals. Especially in developing countries this is a popular approach since there are simply not enough expatriates who would give up the comfort of their home.
While the reliance on local staff makes it difficult to implement the corporate culture, it allows the company to more deeply set roots in the foreign country. While at the same time it offers the host country to establish competencies of training and work.
[p.46] In the third step a "integrative or regiocentric orientation" is established. Ideally staff is exchanged mutually between the headquarter and the subsidiaries and staff is employed on both sides regardless of nationality (even third country nationals are being employed). In this system the best of both sides is used to the company's success.

[p.47] Thus there are different kinds of global managers: the expatriate, the local national, and the inpatriate managers.

The Expatriate
So far sending expatriates is the common business option for companies working abroad. They posses advanced technical as well as business skills, are experienced and hold a broad, informal knowledge in working within the parent organization. While it is their task to establish their company in the foreign country, they often fail to manage and to adjust to the given cultural setting. Even though this fact is well known it still remains difficult to select promising expatriates. [p.48] Research (as I already introduced) nowadays focuses on predictive character traits, mostly focusing on the Big Five (though introduced already, here a short-form):

1. extroversion: ability to assert oneself and to gain acceptance through social relationships.
2. agreeableness: ability to form reciprocal social alliances and thus to build social capital within the organization; acting as a team player
3. conscientiousness (Pflichtbewußtsein): being trustworthy, supportive, and diligent
4. emotional stability: ability to cope with stress on a professional as well as on a private level
5. openness and intellect: ability to complete an assignment as supposed and apply changes where needed

Though the authors do not support research on predicting expatriate success based on singling out certain character traits they introduce multiple screening devices. [p.49] The Ashridge Management Research Center, for example characterize expatriates by their
"(1) strategic awareness and support,
(2) adaptability in [p.50] new/novel environmental situations,
(3) sensitivity and openness to other cultures and social mores,
(4) language capabilities, and
(5) interpersonal communication skills."
Other sources call expatriates to posses the so-called soft skills such as "global awareness, international strategy, cultural empathy, international or cross-cultural team building, international negotiation skills, ethical understanding of conducting business in foreign countries, and self-efficacy."

Altogether they pin down expatriate's failure to be caused by problems to adjust to the organization and/or the culture and due to family-related issues. They warn of a lack of cross-cultural training and a lack of support by the organization itself to transfer and to adjust. The authors caution against damaging relationships and therefore business opportunities in the long run, and against damaging the expatriate's career.

Local Nationals
The advantages of hiring local nationals in emerging markets are obvious: They possess a "tacit knowledge of cultural, social, and economic characteristics". [p.51] Thus they have a lead on handling local institutions. They can rely on a professional and personal network - which expatriates would still have to establish. Different to expatriates who are only on short-term assignments they are also more likely to guarantee stability and do not need any adjustment time. In that regard they are also less expensive since the company does not need to pay extra for housing and incentives.
Additionally, the authors suggest that local nationals might be especially highly motivated because of extra benefits, compensation, and the prestige working for an international company. Presumingly receiving more acceptance throughout staff then foreigners, they could also function as a role model. Especially in developing countries the authors expect to find a larger pool of applicants in the host country than expatriates. They even suggest to find staff that is perfectly qualified but simply does not meet the local market needs - e.g. women. (But actually I think that that contradicts their assumptions of a higher acceptance of local nationals - it sure offers new chances to the affected potential employees but putting them in lead positions might need some extra effort to establish their role.)
As disadvantages Harvey and Napier name questionable loyalty. They also mention difficulties to first find and then retain qualified staff with experience. They assume potential qualified staff to be mostly integrated in family owned businesses or in the government. They also warn that different cultures might stick to different hierarchies: the most qualified might not necessarily be accepted in the designated role when normally, for example, the oldest person holds the lead position. It might also be difficult to impose Western business practices and policies on the subsidiary.
Altogether it seems as if multinational companies are afraid to take the challenges and even more important they are reluctant to give away control.

Inpatriate Managers
Inpatriate managers are host country nationals who are referred "back" to the headquarter. Harvey and Napier understand them to be "linking-pins". [p.52] As expatriated host nationals they possess a deep social knowledge about their home country, they have their existing networks, they know the culturally "right" way of handling staff and partners. Going abroad they are getting attached to the businesses corporate culture and thus gain credibility and trust. They broaden their skills by taking an external view on the local business, getting "a keen sense of the dynamics". Having grown up with a different education, different training and different work experiences they can enrich the company to a "pluralistic strategic orientation". Thus inpatriate managers can function as "boundary spanners between the domestic and foreign operations of a company".

Harvey and Napier see inpatriate managers to be the future of global business.


in: Gerald R. Ferris, M.Ronald Buckley, Donald B. Fedo.: Human Resources Management - Perspectives, Context, Functions, and Outcomes. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2002. 4th edition

In Poznań Panopa employs about 700 people which are responsible to store materials and parts as well as assemble some of them ready for delivery and distribute them just-in-time and just-in-sequence at Volkswagen. The smooth functioning is guaranteed by regular communication between and within the companies. ("Weil einfach die Verzahnung der ganzen Kette so eng ist, dass die Information ein wesentlicher Bestandteil ist; ansonsten können Sie den Job nicht machen." Vieth, 04.00min) Every morning at 8a.m. Panopa and Volkswagen sit together to review the last 24 hours: where did something go wrong? Were there distributional bottle necks? How can we avoid them next time? In this Volkswagen, Panopa and in this case Mr. Vieth follow the claim that nothing is worse than a mistake happening twice. Thus all operational departments, and Panopa as service provider is taken as just another operational department, sit together and make sure everything is set for the next day. Quite naturally the cooperation between Volkswagen and Panopa offered more possible sources of friction in the beginning than it does nowadays were the daily meetings can be performed within half an hour.

Start-up problems were diminished by the fact that both parties were basically run by German expatriates: the top two levels of management were occupied by Germans. Consequently, German was enforced as first language within the organizational structures. The situation was further eased by the fact that Volkswagen is the biggest employer in the area which facilitates the communication with the municipal authorities and communities. In terms of infrastructure for example the authorities renovated a quite decrepit bridge which was connecting Panopa's warehouse with Volkswagen's factory 6km away.
Dr. Hucht resumes that it was quite helpful for them to work for a well-known client who is conducting projects which are of public interest and widely appreciated. Nevertheless there were no networks Panopa could fall back onto. Their first project manager, interestingly enough a French, looked for a contact person on site who was then responsible for getting all the necessary admissions (water, electricity, ...). Without knowing a single word in Polish it would have been impossible to talk to the authorities and to apply for permits. ("Weil wenn Sie kein Polnisch sprechen, haben Sie keine Chance." Vieth, 09.14min) The only thing that was not run by their contact person was the building of the storehouse. That was done by a German architect who was already living in Poland since 14 years which left Panopa with hardly any work on that topic of admissions. ("Das ganze übrige Geschäft [..] haben wir eigentlich eingekauft." Vieth, 09.30min) Meanwhile several societies and groups came into existence which establish and open up networks to foreign entrepreneurs. This certainly facilitates start up and the possibilities to gain information.

When Panopa first came to Poland they also faced problems with the different legislation. Since it used to very be difficult for foreigner to actually buy a piece of land in Panopa built their first storehouse onto a site which did not belong to themselves. While they were putting up the lease contracts they had to find out that by Polish Law the building belongs to the owner of the site. ("Weil man eben doch die deutschen Zusammenhänge und Gepflogenheiten überträgt auf das andere Land und dann eventuell auch in eine Falle rein rennt, wo man gar nicht mit gerechnet hat." Dr. Hucht, 11.02 min.) Problems in that direction piled up because as a company you were not allowed to build a house before you were not operating in Poland since two years - but which company can actually wait two years. Thus you need somebody who talks with the parties concerned and explains that Panopa is interested in being a reliable partner and a future employer. ("Sie müssen da irgendeinen Sachverständigen haben, der für Sie dort hingeht und klar macht, dass Sie da eine Halle bauen dürfen; [...] dass Sie ein guter Partner sind, die nächsten Jahre in Polen auch für Arbeitsplätze sorgen und so weiter und so fort." Vieth, 11.52 min)

I had two nice interviews this week.
I'll throw you right into the second one. The text is quite long but I think it's worth reading ;-) And it was a long interview: 1.5 hours. (I add some German quotes I scribbled along since I was not allowed to record the interview. Hope they don't bother the English readers too much but I might want to use them.)

For my second interview I met a guy from the human resource management of a German constructing company. Thus he is one of the big important guys - scary. Lucky me that I did not know that before. Among other things he is responsible for the 380 expatriates his company is sending on mission abroad. He did not tell me so much about Poland in specific but drew a very interesting picture on the expatriate business.

His company first went to Poland in 1990, thus veryvery early. Mostly when they move onto new markets they follow their clients. Let's say they have done constructing for e.g. Volkswagen in Germany. Then Volkswagen decides to put up a factory in Poland - my interview partner's constructing company will for sure accompany them. In Poland they were first cooperating with a Polish company to master a huge construction project. But their expansion plans based on former clients. He said the Eastern European market to be especially interesting because the population is keen on consuming, on investing their money.

While the Polish part of his company is an independently running association, expatriates are send for several reasons:

• they are experts in their field of the construction process.
• for means of human resource development. The mission abroad is often taken as a step up in the business's hierarchy. ("Wenn der demnächst ne ganze Truppe leiten soll, soll der vorher auch mal sehen, wie der Laden im Ausland läuft.")
• they act as guarding dogs in all areas (which my interview partner described as organs, the vital parts of an organization: "Organe der Gesellschaft") but especially when it comes to financing; in this function the expat is responsible to do or see through the processes of planning, calculating, thus watch that everything is running smoothly and that the right numbers are reported, since everything will flow into the overall big balance.
• Every now and then expatriates are also installed in the Board of Executives, sometimes as guarding dogs and sometimes to profit from their experience when it comes to installing a whole new division for example.

They try to run a regular cycle with their expatriates ranging from two till four years. Every now and then they might send somebody on a half-year mission but that only happens in special cases where experts are needed. They normally do not stay longer to prevent fraternization.

Their biggest problem is actually to find enough people who are willing to go on an expatriate mission. ("Es ist nicht viel Auswahl. Wir freuen uns, wenn wir für eine Position drei Kandidaten haben, meistens sind es nur zwei.") They try to meet this problem already in their hiring practice where they especially look for people with international experience or for people with a multi-ethnic background. ("Wir suchen nach Menschen mit zwei Seelen in der Brust; Menschen mit zwei, drei Mentalitäten.") Thus they normal advertise their jobs already in English since on 80% of the construction sites English is the main language. They look for people who are mobile, adroit, open-minded and who already studied or worked in foreign countries. They have to show a certain ambitiousness and joy at other people and other cultures; they have to show a gipsy-mentality.

At the same time they try to work on the Polish side by means of ongoing training. This has several advantages. In the long-term they hope to reduce the need for expatriates. For the moment further training is simply necessary to work with qualified staff and then to draw employees close to the company. My interview partner described Poland as one of the hot markets where it is relatively easy to make a career if you are keen on that. ("Osteuropa - das sind heiße Märkte, da bewegt sich unheimlich viel.") Nobody has the patience to run through a solid three-year apprenticeship while you can make the big bucks so much faster.
In general companies are faced with a much higher fluctuation than in Germany. Qualified staff is rare and competitors are willing to pay higher salaries if they do not have to invest into education. But there is a natural limit to paying employees for staying. My interview partner's company tries to bind people by offering them a future, by cultivating personal relations, and by giving them the outlook to work for a successful, well-positioned company, thus employ their reputation. A profound job marketing and close connections to the universities leads to 30.000-40.000 job applications annually. ("Jung finden und selbst backen." - Find young and bake yourself.) Nevertheless, this procedure implies that only in 10-15 years you will have the staff that you are looking for.

Thus: back to expatriates.
(I split the summary so you'll have to check out the next article linked aboved.)

The Expatriate Business
The expatriates in a construction company are of course working on their projects long before they get to go on the construction site. Additionally, everybody is working on several projects at the same time since normally it is not clear till the end which company will actually get the order to build. From 10 projects planned only two will get ordered. Thus projects normally are kicked off four to five years in advance. For the expatriate business this as several advantages. First of all every project is run by a small fixed team. Other people will join that group during the course of the project but the leading troop will remain together. Thus by the time an expatriate mission is becoming relevant all the parties concerned are already long acquainted to each other. And of course the company tries to install groups that already proved to work well together in order to not face any additional problems. The more tricky a project is the more important the personal binding turns out to be ("bei den Schlüsselfiguren achten wir auf eine feste Bindung").
The company further promotes personal bounds by organizing workshops or training programs in which employees from all over the world join together. ("Damit möglichst viele Menschen im Konzern ein Netzwerk haben.") Thus when expatriates go to work abroad they do not arrive at a completely unknown setting. ("Normalerweise kennt man schon Kollegen aus dem anderen Land; Berührungspunkte gibt es überall.")
This concept of personal bounds also helps to avoid problems of power structures which the host country nationals often face. While it is never easy to admit mistakes or to ask strangers for help, a company is dependent on sharing knowledge. But a Polish employee would never call for help in the head office in Germany even though he might knew that the company has 100 experts sitting there especially trained in solving problems just like his. This is eased up by introducing employees to each other. Then the Polish employee does not have to call some unknown boss but calls Hans or Karl and turns to them for help as a friend.
The company also tries to consider employees personal preferences. This means if somebody often goes on vacation in Greece, he will most likely be assigned to projects taking place in Greece. As an international company they are dependent on being enrooted in the environment. They kind of expect their employees to also deploy their personal contacts and to cultivate networks ("ein Apparat will gepflegt werden").

Networking is further institutionalized by the kind of projects the company is participating in: joint-ventures are the most successful projects where each participating company is responsible for their share. Sometimes this is the only way to get into big building projects. They are often initiated by public institutions and nowadays financed through public-private-partnerships. Consequently it is difficult to give projects such as airports which are of public and national interest to a foreign company.
These professional partnerships on the other hand minimize the risks and allow access to already existing networks in the foreign market. The German company would assign a team of engineers which then would be responsible for assigning appropriate companies. The Joint-Venture-Board itself would meet once a month. And financial matters from all running construction projects are reported to the German head office every monday. While daily communication among all people in charge is absolutely essential, somebody from the German head office will visit the construction site at least every three to four weeks.

While sometimes only one expatriate will be sent abroad, a number between five to 20 is quite usual for a project with a turnover of 170 million ? and 400 employees in peak times.