【彭蒙惠英语】“通用磨坊”迈向全球化(2/2)
General Mills Goes Global(2/2)
General Mills'employees are making moves from one country to another
Don Mulligan, an experienced international manager, learned early on that working in a foreign market required ignoring your instinct---because it's often wrong.
"You have to be willing to have confidence in the local management to make the right decisions," he said, recalling an experience where he went against his instincts and followed the recommendation of a local manager in China. The local manager's opinion---to grow a brand prodigious aggressively rather than slowly---paid off.
A good investment
Within headquarters, there's mounting interest in working overseas. The company uses an international assignment to develop stronger leaders, sometimes planning their return before the executive even leaves.
"We want to get a goad return on the investment," said Tanya Srepel, vice president for human resources, international. Srepel said she just knows the type of people who will thrive overseas---passionate, smart and with broad interests.
The payoff comes with executives like Jeff Harmening, president of Big G cereals, whose years abroad beefed up his knowledge of the 130 markets worldwide where the company is active.
The company has 10,000 employees outside of the United States, many of them local hires. It is also bringing more foreign nationals to the mothership. For example, Johnny Sung, a Shanghai native, moved to Minneapolis this year to do marketing for Haagen-Dazs and Nature Valley.
Not for everyone
Yet far all the focus on the company's international growth, no one is pretending that the domestic business takes a backseat. The United States still accounts for 80 percent of company revenue.
Maybe that's good. Working overseas isn't for everyone.
"I found it terribly exciting, but excitement for me might be someone else's hardship," said Ian Friendly, chief operating officer. In the mid-1990s, he worked in 5vuth America and Southeast Asia, among other foreign locales.
The combination of travel and navigating a mishmash of cultures requires a certain temperament, which is why General Mills tells its young executives that overseas assignment aren't the only route to the top.
"You have to do it for the right reasons," Friendly said.
Vocabulary Focus
mothership (n)--- a main ship or vehicle that carries a smaller vehicle which can operate independently, but still relies on the first (often used metaphorically)
take a backseat (idiom)--- to be in a less important position than something else
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（责编：lingxiao01）
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