You are the head of HR for a medium-sized global financial company with operations in the North America (US, Canada) and in Asia (China, India, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam). You sell your financial products in the US, Canada, India, Indonesia and Vietnam. You are just starting to sell in China and considering selling in Singapore. You have back-office operations in the US, China, India and Singapore.

The expat President of your India operation will soon be returning to the US to retire after a three-year assignment in which the operation doubled in employees and successfully started selling its financial products in India. The company is now positioned to significantly increase its market share. India is already the company's fastest growing market in revenue and profits.

You need to appoint a new President to oversee the India subsidiary -both sales and operations. You are also proposing a new Regional SVP position in Singapore to coordinate sales and strategic planning across the Asia Region. The SVP job has not been approved but you're confident it will be, so you want to keep it in mind when you fill the President position. While costs on key positions like this are secondary to finding the right talent, you have pressure to trim HR costs in the Asia region. (Expat packages average $600k per year with US salaries, housing, transport back to the US, etc.)

President of the India subsidiary.

Senior Vice President Regional Strategy for the parent company (tentative position)

Think about each job and the types of skills each position would require. There are four finalist resumes on your desk:

Questions:

Which of the four applicants would you hire for each position? Why?

What do you think the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate are? How do they match up to the skills needed for each position?

What are the positives and negatives of filling these roles with expats? Should there be rules guiding the use of expats or should it be done on a case-by-case basis?