REVERSE IMPERIALISM:

Seeking leadership, Britain puts foreigners in top jobs: Experts attribute the shift to a grudging respect for the way other
societies do things. (Mark Rice-Oxley, 12/08/03, CS Monitor)

Foreigners run the biggest two phone companies (Vodafone and BT) and one of the largest banks (Barclays); media groups are full of non-British bosses, while overseas coaches run three major soccer teams (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool) and several rugby clubs. There is even a foreign-born member of Parliament (Gisela Stuart), an American running London transport (Bob Kiley), and another spearheading Britain's bid to stage the 2012 Olympics (Barbara Cassani).

"This is a comparatively recent trend that has been growing over the past few years," says Patricia Peter, corporate governance executive at the Institute of Directors, a British association for top management. "British companies are saying we will look for the best person and we won't have a national bias."

"In a way it does reflect an openness in the UK that isn't there in other parts of the world," she adds. "We are not hidebound. There are things we can learn from other people."

By comparison, continental Europe has all kinds of obstacles that make it harder for foreigners to get ahead, says Prof. Peter Buckley of Leeds University Business School. Ownership has historically been concentrated around families who retain a large measure of executive control. Language can, moreover, be a barrier to all but the most polyglot.

The colonies paying the Motherland back.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 7, 2003 7:55 PM