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Published
22 July 2019
Read time
4 minutes

Six common challenges in managing a global organization

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As a big baseball fan (Go Red Sox!), one of the most fascinating aspects of the sport is how international it has become. Across Major League Baseball, more than a quarter of the players on big-league rosters were born outside the United States and this percentage is increasing.

Baseball, the most American of institutions, went global to find new talent, expand its brand and introduce its business to new customers. Its international success should serve as a lesson to any enterprise, old or young. If your business is looking for growth, going global is the natural next step.

There will be roadblocks. I should know. At one time, I was vice president of international finance for an American supplier of telecommunications networking equipment, where I was responsible for the accounting, tax and finance functions for 30 foreign subsidiaries. In addition, I spent considerable time helping support their HR and legal needs. I have the battle scars to prove that managing a global organization presents challenges.

Although individual companies respond differently to international opportunities, my experience finds that they face a common set of challenges when managing a global footprint.

1. HR

People are an asset and a challenge. Many companies find recruiting and developing talent abroad hard to accomplish. There are language and cultural differences to overcome, and you often don’t have HR personnel on the ground in satellite offices. Identifying an onboarding program for international employees that works for you is a critical success factor.

At-will employment, which allows businesses to terminate workers for any reason, is a U.S. construct. Outside the U.S., employment relations are handled by contracts, and host country labor laws may supersede certain elements of what we, in the U.S., think of as a typical employment agreement. Penalties for noncompliance can be significant. In France, for example, the maximum damages for unfair termination is set at 20 months of gross salary for employees with at least 30 years of service. Companies with global workforces often deal with multiple payroll and HR administration systems too. No wonder HR leaders struggle to find the time to be strategic.

2. Taxes

Complexity is increasing. The list of countries initiating a value-added tax, which is collected at each stage of production, in growing, most recently in the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states. As more sales go online and are fulfilled by third parties, compliance has become tricky for these e-commerce businesses. You need to know the local tax rules and have a plan in place so that the risks of running into trouble are reduced.

It’s also a new day in tax information reporting. Globalization, emerging markets, greater transparency and increased regulation are transforming the global tax framework. Seeking to combat tax evasion, governments are sharing information on residents’ assets and income, which has increased the compliance burden on business.

3. Cash management

Businesses need to be prepared for the age of digital cash. In developing countries, digital cash has become physically safer than carrying or storing cash or buying gold or silver. It makes bank transfers faster and cheaper and allows smaller businesses to engage more efficiently in global e-commerce. Working with one or two global banking partners versus a myriad of banks from country to country will make things easier and more effective.

Treasurers still have to deal with volatile foreign currencies, as well as compliance with anti-money laundering (“AML”) and know-your-client (“KYC”) regulations, which have made it more difficult to do seemingly simple things, like open an overseas bank account.

4. Market entry

When entering a new market, there’s always the need for local knowledge. How do you make those contacts? How do you avoid common mistakes? What are the best practices? Where 20 years ago one could often “fly under the radar” if not fully compliant at the outset, today, technology and other transparency efforts make it imperative to get things right, from the beginning.

The common challenges include understanding government regulations, forecasting startup / launch costs, product differentiation, access to suppliers and distributors, and hiring.  But the speed of innovation might require a new business model or new approach to pricing and marketing. Identify a primary, experienced in-country expert to serve as your guide to launching new operations successfully.

A good first step to gaining a baseline understanding of a potential international business expansion destination is accessing a number of reputable, free resources, like this country profile library, which is available for businesses to take the first step towards informed and successful expansion.

5. Transaction support

The volume of global mergers and acquisitions, including carve-outs, is increasing. Companies and investors have loads of cash and interest rates remain low. But cross-border transactions present a unique set of issues that are compounded by the scale and geographic scope of the deal.

A deal of this type will produce a “NewCo” with a global footprint, basically the consolidation of specific in-country NewCo’s in each location.  Each of these will have “Operational Readiness” requirements so that they are properly ready to conduct business upon the close of the transaction. Examples of tasks that must be adhered to include legal entity incorporations, local directorships (a Board requirement in many countries), employee regulations (for example, TUPE obligations in Europe) and similar benefits requirements, business licenses and tax registrations, bank account setups, payroll registrations and the provision of ongoing payroll services, accounting systems and setup, and corporate secretarial processes needed for local compliance.

6. On-call expertise

When a problem arises halfway around the world, who are you going to call? Who do you trust? The best companies have access to a robust lineup of experts, from lawyers to accountants to consultants, they can call anytime.

An older version of this article was published on Accounting Today

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