Too little attention to foreign markets seems to result in missed opportunities for sales growth, operational inefficiencies, and the risk of being blindsided by fast-moving international competitors. In companies with large international operations, senior executives who gave too little attention to global issues tended to follow one of two approaches. In the first instance, they forced headoffice solutions on overseas subsidiaries using a kind of "my way or the highway" mentality. In the second approach, they delegated primary strategic and operating decision-making authority to foreign subsidiary managers, employing a sort of "it's not my job to worry about these things" mindset. While both approaches may be efficient from a headoffice perspective, neither maximizes company performance. Both fail to tap the rich resources of the global company. Both also fail to achieve the learning and best-practice benefits that come through global knowledge sharing and skill generation.

On the other hand, an excessive level of attention to opportunities and threats abroad seems to create even bigger problems. It can lead senior executives to take their minds off potentially more critical issues at home or interfere with the smooth functioning of foreign operations that do not need intense scrutiny from head-office managers. This can also lead to mental overload and exhaustion on the part of members of the top management team. Given the complexity of global markets, staying abreast of and interpreting world events is taxing.

The greater the international experience levels of managers, the greater the benefits that come from global attention. Managers with more international experience generally had greater ability not only to make sense of rather complex international stimuli but also to process them quickly and in ways that improved the quality of their decision making. Bottom line: if you want to get the most benefit from global attention, put people in place with lots of international experience.

Questions

1. What works best if executives want to increase the level of attention their subordinates give to global issues?
2. Managers who use the "Goldilocks scenario" to solve problems may exhaust themselves as they encounter new issues. What can managers do to avoid exhaustion while managing their international offices?