Foreign Vs Domestic Manpower

By Ram Kumar Sedhai

One prominent Nepali businessman once said that he was looking for well- experienced and competent foreign professional to manage his business. Though he couldn’t justify why he was looking for a foreigner instead of a native, he was so confident that his bad days would be over once he appointed a foreigner. It is interesting to mention that he himself was just an Intermediate in Humanities. He did not realize that his company was passing through that pitiable condition not because it lacked professionals, but because of the mismanagement on the part of the promoters themselves. His conclusion was that the business was unsuccessful only because of the Nepalis as managers who couldn’t lead the organization properly. Soon he hired a foreigner, but the company was still unable to achieve what was expected, and thus it is closed down.

The truth is that the manpower from within the country is far better than the imported one in a number of respects. Despite this reality, it is baffling that Nepali promoters of companies are inclined to hire foreign managers paying higher remuneration. An American from Coca-Cola Corporation may not forecast the demand for Coca-Cola in Nepal as accurately as a Nepali could do. Awareness about tastes and interest of the consumers plays a decisive role in such matters.

There are some Indian subsidiaries and affiliates such as Nepal Lever, Colgate-Palmolive, Dabur Nepal, Asian Paints, Surya Tobacco, Jenson & Nicholson tied up with respective Indian companies and they may have valid reasons to appoint their own people in their subsidiaries. Still they are doing so only in the higher positions. If you believe what the outgoing President of Surya Tobacco said in an interview (NBA, August 2001), the company has in fact started replacing foreigners by hiring Nepali nationals in the senior management positions. When foreign joint ventures are doing so, many Nepali business houses still prefer foreign manpower. One quick survey is enough to show that most of the important posts in the companies under many Nepali business houses (as well as in some financial institutions without foreign investment) are occupied by foreign manpower, especially from India. Though there also are exceptions these are very rare exceptions.

It is, however, not only promoters who harbour such obsession. Even some top ranking Nepali executives prefer to have Indians as their immediate subordinates. And Indian professionals have indeed helped in successful operations of many Nepali companies. More importantly, they have also trained many Nepali nationals to become equally successful professionals. But that does not mean that the foreigners are always successful. Top level management people who have worked in Nepal for the last one decade or so remember a glaring example of one otherwise highly competent manager who changed companies from soft-drink to beer industry, and was frustrated to be proved a failure wherever he went. Several such example can be found by making just a couple of telephone calls.

Human resource is not an end in itself, but just a means to some ends. If the objective of a business is to run profitably, the owners need not bother about the nationality of the manager they hire as long as the manager performs the job. But a professional manager can perform best only in a situation of freedom from high-handed interference of the owners. Without management separated from ownership, a company may not run as profitably as desired. The owners may not be professional and capable to lead the organization. They must let the organization work independently. Failure of Nepali professionals is largely due to this failure of owners to keep the management and ownership separate.

Though the products of Nepali Universities lag behind foreigners in terms of practical trainings and specialization, they undoubtedly can work better than foreigners in Nepal if they are exposed to the practical field for some time. The company, of course, has to make some initial investment in training. But it costs less in the long run than hiring a foreign manpower. Just shift through the previous issues of New Business Age, and you can find that companies with very high ratio of foreigners in their payroll also experience a very high rate of employee turnover. Foreign manpower is, of course, very highly mobile.

Instances of foreign managers being failures in spite of being capable and expert in their respective disciplines, show that they have difficulty in adjusting with the soil of Nepal. Misunderstanding with the owners of the business are quite likely to develop very soon. It sure takes time for any foreigner to know the different aspect of local market such as the geography, the social ethos, legal and political aspects etc. A manager fresh from abroad will have to rely, at least initially, on the information of his local subordinates. Then ego and personality clash gradually develop between the two. This consequently leads to lack of coordination. In this context, it is now time that the Nepali employers thought about developing native manpower by means of different trainings rather than to rely only on manpower from abroad.