????本月早些時候，在成都召開的財富全球論壇舉辦了一場關于市場進入策略的分組討論會，這次會議給人印象最深的一點是與會公司最高管理層的國際性多元化。

????美國商務部前部長卡洛斯?古鐵雷斯指出，在食品公司家樂氏（Kellogg，K）擔任首席執行官時，他的前任是一名澳大利亞人，他的繼任者則是一名加拿大人。巴西人薄睿拓執掌著全球最大啤酒釀造企業百威英博（ABInBev），它的規模遙遙領先于其他啤酒公司，但巴西只占該公司啤酒銷量的四分之一。（順便提一下，百威英博董事長基斯?斯多姆是荷蘭人）。吉利（Geely）是中國汽車制造業全球化的一面旗幟，最近它并購了瑞典的沃爾沃（Volvo）——后者的營收接近吉利的五倍。吉利創始人兼董事長李書福也因此頻頻出現在新聞頭條中。他計劃把沃爾沃的制造業務引進中國，并首先在成都建立一家工廠，此舉將使外國人在吉利的中國業務中擔任關鍵角色。在此之前，我們在財富全球論壇上還聽到了聯想（Lenovo）首席執行官楊元慶的發言。這家公司的最高管理團隊有14人，來自七個不同的國家。

????看到這些企業的最高管理層有著如此強烈的多元文化色彩自然令人振奮。不過，現實情況是它們并不具有代表性。財富全球500強中，在總部所在國以外聘請首席執行官的僅有14%。在規模較小，國際化程度較低的公司中，非本國首席執行官的比例明顯偏低——而在100家最大的非金融跨國公司中，這一比例達到31%。在這100家公司中，非本國董事的比例也大致處于同一水平。

????最常見的情況是，大公司的最高層中僅有一名外籍人士，他可能會感到過于孤單。（想象一下，作為聯想最高管理團隊中唯一的一名外國人會面臨怎樣的困難。）在非本國高層中，來自公司總部所在地區的管理者也特別多，表明除了國家偏好之外，還存在著地區偏好。有些公司不存在這樣的情況，但其中很多都是跨境并購的結果，比如百威英博。在出現成功案例的同時，也不乏失敗案例。例如，阿爾卡特朗訊（Alcatel-Lucent，ALU）合二為一后，來自法國和美國的聯合首席執行官之間就出現了權力分配問題。

????同樣，最高層全球化的普及速度似乎也不是非常快。2012年，在財富全球500強中，非本國首席執行官的比例為14.4%，而在2008年這一比例就已經達到13.6%。按照這樣的速度，幾乎要到2200年該數字才能提升到50%。值得注意的是，就全球500強的非本國首席執行官比例而言，瑞士居于世界最高水平。美國公司的非本國首席執行官比例為14%，與全球平均值相當。在金磚國家的全球500強公司中，僅有一家公司的最高管理者是非本國人士。

????外籍高管偏少的部分原因是近年來跨境任命高管的現象顯著減少。一項研究發現，在中國、印度、巴西和俄羅斯的跨國公司中，高級管理層中外派人員的比例已經從20世紀90年代后期的56%降至本世紀前十年末期的12%。少量大型樣板公司的數據顯示，在大型跨國公司中，外派人員的比例一般不到總雇員人數的1%——通常只有0.1%左右。還有證據顯示，在歐美跨國公司中，相對于留在本國的管理者，外派人員在升職方面通常要花更長的時間。不僅是研究者，管理者也已經注意到了這個現象。因此，在經濟學家情報社（EIU）近期召開的人才管理峰會上進行的一項調查中，盡管有超過60%的受訪者認為在主要新興市場或發達市場任職在原則上應有助于職業發展，但僅有27%的人認為自己所在公司的人才發展戰略體現出了這一點。大約同樣比例的受訪者稱，他們公司的政策并沒有向外派人員傾斜。37%的受訪者表示，自己所在的公司總是設法在所有關鍵職位上招聘本土人士。

????One of the most striking takeaways from a panel on go-to-market strategies at the Fortune Global Forum in Chengdu, China earlier this month was the international diversity in the C-suite of the companies represented.

????Carlos Gutierrez, former U.S. Commerce Secretary, pointed out that his predecessor as CEO at Kellogg (K) was an Australian and his successor a Canadian. Brazilian Carlos Brito runs ABInBev, which is by far the world's largest brewer but sells only one-quarter of its beer in Brazil. (ABInBev's chairman, Kees Storm, is Dutch, by the way). Li Shufu, the founder-chairman of Geely, the standard-bearer of globalization among Chinese automakers, recently generated headlines when his company swallowed Volvo of Sweden -- with nearly five times Geely's revenues. His plans to bring Volvo production to China, starting with a plant in Chengdu, will result in non-Chinese holding key roles within the Chinese operations. And earlier at Fortune's Global Forum, we heard from Yuanqing Yang, CEO of Lenovo, whose top management team of 14 includes nationals from seven different countries.

????As encouraging as it is to see such multiculturalism at the top of these organizations, the reality is that these examples are unrepresentative. Only 14% of the Fortune Global 500 have a CEO from outside the country where the company is headquartered. The percentage of non-native CEOs is significantly lower for smaller, less international companies -- and rises to 31% for the 100 largest nonfinancial, transnational corporations in the world. The percentage of non-native directors is about the same at those 100 companies.

????Most often, big companies have only one outsider in the top ranks, a lone ranger who may feel too alone. (Imagine the difficulty of being the only foreigner in Lenovo's top management team.) Non-natives also tend to be disproportionately from the same region as where the company is headquartered, suggesting regional as well as home bias. Many of the exceptions to these patterns are the results of cross-border mergers or acquisitions, as at ABInBev (BUD). But for every such case of success, it is easy to specify a failure, e.g., the unworkable power sharing between French and American co-CEOs at Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) after the two companies merged.

????Nor does the incidence of top-level globalization seem to be increasing very rapidly. The 14.4% incidence of non-native CEOs in the Fortune Global 500 in 2012 is up only from 13.6% in 2008: at this rate, it would take almost until 2200 to get up to 50%. Note that Switzerland leads the world in terms of the incidence of non-native CEOs in the Fortune Global 500. The U.S. falls right at the global average of 14% non-native CEOs. Only one of the Fortune Global 500 companies from the BRIC countries is led by a non-native.

????Part of the reason for this shortage of foreign executives: cross-border assignments have suffered significant cutbacks in recent times. According to one study, the proportion of expatriates in senior management roles at multinationals in China, India, Brazil, Russia, and the Middle East declined from 56% to 12% from the late 1990s to the late 2000s. Data on a small sample of large companies suggest that the proportion of expatriates in large global companies is usually less than 1% of total employment -- often only around 0.1%. There is also evidence that at U.S. and European multinationals, expatriates tend to take longer to ascend the corporate ladder than managers who stay at home. And managers, not just researchers, see this happening. Thus, while more than 60% of respondents to a recent survey conducted during EIU's Talent Management Summit agree that a posting in a major emerging or developed markets should in principle help one's career prospects, only 27% believe this is reflected in their company's talent development strategy. About the same percentage say their firm has no policy towards ex-pat postings, and 37% assert that the organization always tries to recruit local staff for all key roles.