Before hiring an overseas business leader: business direction and execution

――From the work to be entrusted to, how to select personnel, authority, and how to proceed after taking the position.

We would like to hire a responsible person to grow our overseas business. We are looking for someone who can cultivate customers locally, lead the organization, and work smoothly with the head office. These expectations for human resources are natural.

However, there are some things management should have in place before starting the search for candidates. What should we provide to which customers in which markets to achieve results? To achieve this, what should be left to the person in charge and how far should they be allowed to decide? What should the headquarters support and which decisions should it take over?

If this point remains ambiguous, the hiring requirements will expand to “persons with extensive overseas experience who can do anything.” Even if you meet a candidate with a proven track record during the screening process, it will be difficult to judge whether they can demonstrate the same ability in your company.

In this article, we will explain in order how to confirm the business policy that is the prerequisite for recruitment, how to choose external recruitment, internal promotion, training, and external support, and how to implement it after taking the position. Finally, there is a judgment memo that you can write about your company's situation and 12 items to check.

1. The first thing to decide is "which stage of the business should I entrust to you?"

Even if you are the same overseas business manager, the work you seek will differ depending on the stage of your business. The issues that are tackled initially and the materials used to judge results are different for those who want to ascertain the market and those who want to expand an existing business.

This classification is not intended to apply a uniform image of human resources to each stage. For example, even if you are aiming for expansion, if you cannot adequately explain why your existing customers are buying, you need to work on understanding your customers first. Depending on the region or product, different stages may exist at the same time.

First, write in one sentence, “What would you like to change about your business by having this person join the company?” If you can go one step further from “increasing overseas sales” to “review sales that rely on specific distributors and create a system that allows continuous proposals to key customers,” the necessary experience and work will become more concrete.

2. Differentiate between human resource shortages and business/organizational issues

When goals are not progressing, there may be a lack of people to take on the role, or the assumptions about the product, customer, or sales method may not match. Furthermore, even if the person in charge has the ability, he or she may not be able to control prices or personnel, making it difficult to take actions that will lead to results.

The starting point for determining the cause is to trace the actual situation where work stopped. Check “what happened”, “who had what information”, and “where decisions stopped” regarding recent lost orders, delayed estimates, delivery issues, and the departure of important employees.

For example, simply explaining that your sales skills are weak will not determine your next move. The necessary response will depend on whether there is a lack of contact with the customer, whether the product does not match the customer's conditions, whether it takes time to respond to the price, or whether there is no system in place to provide it after receiving the order.

Rather than immediately translating them into recruitment requirements, consider them in four parts:

• Business premises: On what basis do you make decisions about the market, customers, value, and profitability?
• Roles and authority: Who is responsible for which outcomes and what decisions can be made to achieve them?
• Human resources and resources: Do you have the necessary capabilities, number of people, budget, information, and partners?
• Day-to-day operations: Are information sharing, judgment, execution, and review actually occurring?

You don't have to stick to a "fix everything before hiring" order. Another option is to put the responsibility of deepening your understanding of customers in your role, and proceed with exploration and recruitment in parallel. In that case, we will share with you from the time of selection that this is different from hiring a company where you are handed a completed business plan.

3. When it comes to business policies, check whether they can be used to make decisions rather than their completeness.

Completing a great business plan is not what you need before hiring someone. It is important to share with management the assumptions that those in charge can refer back to when making decisions.

At a minimum, summarize the following information:

Target customers and value provided

"Asian market" and "local companies" are too broad. Write down who is having trouble with it, who is comparing it with others, and choosing your company. By separating the reasons for orders from existing customers and the hypotheses for customers you would like to cultivate in the future, it becomes difficult to confuse actual results with expectations.

Sales and provision system

We will organize who will be in charge of business negotiations and who will be responsible for installation and maintenance, whether it is direct sales or an agency. If you want to change your sales methods, you will need to review not only your sales personnel, but also your delivery system and your responsibilities to customers.

Profitability and investment assumptions

In addition to sales forecasts, check the costs that will affect your decision, such as discounts, logistics, workload, and local fixed costs. Even if there is a gross profit on a product-by-product basis, your judgment may change when you factor in the costs of customer service and base maintenance. Discuss the cost range and aggregation method with the finance person.

Conditions for review

Decide what information you need to review your target customers, sales methods, and investment allocation. Don't just "wait and see"; list the things to check, the person in charge, the deadline, and the next decision. It is important to set numerical standards according to the industry and stage of the business, and not to simply use the standards of other companies.

Once you have organized this, you will be able to explain to the candidate what you currently know and what you would like to confirm together after joining. Rather than hiding unknowns and raising expectations, this will serve as material for concrete conversations about what to entrust.

4. Choose from external recruitment, internal promotion, training, and external support among the jobs you will be responsible for.

Once you have identified the tasks of your business, the next step is to compare who will be responsible for those tasks. Rather than trying to fill all the missing functions by hiring one person, separate business responsibilities, specialized functions, local execution, and coordination with headquarters.

For example, if the in-house business manager has a deep understanding of the product and customers, but what is lacking is building a local sales system, there are other options other than immediately hiring an executive who will be in charge of the entire overseas business. After clarifying the authority of the existing manager, you can also consider a combination of hiring a local sales manager and supplementing specialized functions with an external person.

On the other hand, even with external support, if no one within the company makes decisions about investments, important personnel, and policy changes, the project will not move forward. A set of “scopes to be entrusted to external parties” and “scopes to be decided by the company”.

5. Recruitment requirements should be changed from title to “work that produces results.”

Even if you choose to hire externally, simply listing language skills and years of work overseas at the beginning of a job posting will not provide enough criteria to compare candidates. First, write down the job the candidate will be responsible for, based on the results and performance conditions.

Examples of ambiguous requirements

"Someone with extensive overseas experience, able to negotiate in English, and able to handle a wide range of tasks from sales to organizational development."

Example of concrete work

"We will select key customers, organize sales activities, and review our roles with agents. Prices will be determined within the agreed profitability conditions. Technical support will be shared with the head office department, and we will set deadlines for responding to customers and establish channels for escalation."

If you specify the latter, the experience you ask candidates will also change. You can ask not only the number of years they worked overseas, but also which clients they chose, what they reviewed, and which decisions they were responsible for.

When evaluating your performance, dig into at least the following:

• What stage was the business you were in charge of: exploration, startup, expansion, or rebuilding?
• What did the person decide, and what did his boss or other department decide?
• What was the available budget, team, product capabilities, and customer base?
• What information did you use to correct the decision that didn't go well?
• If your company's conditions are different, what should you use as is and what should you change?

It is important not to simply substitute the results of your previous job as a prediction of the results at your company. Compare the candidate's experience with the execution conditions that your company can provide. It also serves as material for candidates to assess their future job prospects.

6. When delegating authority, design “delegation” and “confirmation” at the same time.

Handing over authority does not mean that headquarters no longer sees the situation. This is to separate the scope that can be decided locally, the scope that requires prior agreement, and the information that can be shared after a decision has been made.

The following table is an example design for discussing headquarters and responsibility divisions. It does not indicate the approval regulations for individual companies.

Another thing you will want to decide is what to bring when escalating an exception. If you just say "Please approve," it will be difficult for the head office to make a decision. Set out the impact on customers, profitability, options, recommendations, and by when a decision is required. The head office will also decide who will make the decision and by when it will be returned.

If you want the person in charge to take responsibility for results, make sure they can be involved in decisions that affect those results. We will also clarify with whom and how to discuss factors that the individual/herself cannot act on.

7. After taking office, connect understanding, implementation, and handover in stages.

Even if you agree on employment conditions, it does not mean that you will know everything about the business from your first day on the job. You need the opportunity to understand and make practical decisions about relationships with existing employees, customers, agencies, and headquarters.

The following is an example of designing a startup using the first 90 days or so. Adjust the period and order depending on the urgency of the project and your role. The standard does not uniformly require sales results to be achieved in 90 days.

First period: align facts and assumptions

Interact with customers, employees, and related parties at the head office to understand business negotiations, profitability, supply flow, and unresolved decisions. Check the differences between the issues that management had in mind before taking the position and the issues that the employee himself saw. What remains is the current state of affairs, unconfirmed matters, and issues to be prioritized.

Next period: Check the execution conditions with narrowed down tasks

Focus your actions on key customer groups, sales slowdowns, and specific delivery issues. In addition to achieving great results, we also make sure that the information is available, that decisions can be made between the site and the head office, and that the necessary cooperation is obtained. If price responses are slow, review not only the guidance given to sales personnel but also the approval process.

After that: Connect to continued operations

Reflect on the responses you have tried and decide whether to continue, change, or stop. Organize meetings, indicators, judgment criteria, and division of roles to the extent necessary. We will move from a situation where only the person in charge or external support person understands to a situation where the person in charge within the company can take over the decision-making.

If this period of confirmation is used only to assess the individual, it will be difficult to see the lack of support or authority from the head office. It is necessary to separately check the individual's actions and the conditions set by the head office/organization.

8. Hypothetical example: Reorganizing the recruitment requirements for sales managers from business issues

Below is a hypothetical example to illustrate the idea. This is not GCI's customer track record or guarantee of results.

Suppose a manufacturer is considering hiring a “sales manager with local connections” due to sluggish overseas sales. Initially, we thought that adding new distributors would increase sales.

If you follow recent deals before finalizing hiring requirements, you'll find more to check than just the number of agencies. The company has not decided on key customers, and estimates are sent to multiple departments at the head office for each project, and responses regarding delivery dates are slow. Even if we receive an order, the number of workload increases due to individual handling of small-volume projects.

If you hire only a sales manager in this situation, even if you increase the number of business negotiations, the burden of coordinating with the headquarters and providing services may increase. On the other hand, even if you postpone all hiring and only improve internal systems, there will still be a shortage of people who can understand and make judgments about customers locally.

Therefore, we are considering a plan to proceed in parallel as follows.

• Business policy: Narrow down key customers and products and conditions that can be continuously provided.
• Head office structure: Decide who will be responsible for responding to prices and delivery dates, and who will report exceptions.
• Role to be hired: Responsible for sales to key customers and agency operations, and proposes revised plans based on information obtained locally.
• Confirmation after arrival: Track not only the number of business negotiations, but also the progress of estimates, the number of workload provided after receiving an order, and profitability by customer.

Hiring requirements will change from “persons with extensive personal connections” to “persons who can select target customers, assemble sales methods, and arrange implementation conditions with headquarters.” Management also has the task of arranging decisions and cooperation from the head office.

In this way, by looking at the business premises and the conditions of people and organizations together, it becomes clear not only what kind of person to hire, but also what the company will do before and after hiring.

9. First, four decision memos created in-house.

There is no need to compile all of this information into a long document from the beginning. You can start by having managers, business managers, human resources personnel, and people at the head office bring together the following four points.

The state of the business you want to change

Example: Review the ad hoc responses of each agency and create a situation where they can continue to make proposals to key customers.

Current evidence and unconfirmed assumptions

Example: We know the reasons why existing customers receive orders, but we have not confirmed whether the same value will be evaluated by the target customer group. Organize the reason for the recent loss of orders and the number of workload provided.

Jobs to be carried out and current shortages

Example: Business managers at the head office can judge products and profitability. There is a lack of functionality to understand customers locally and manage sales operations. There is also no response route for prices and delivery dates.

What to decide next, in charge, deadline

Example: The business manager prepares a hypothesis of key customers, the human resources manager prepares candidates for recruitment/internal promotion, and the relevant departments at the head office prepare a proposal for the division of decisions. At the next meeting, before deciding who to hire, agree on the tasks to be delegated and the necessary structure.

Even when opinions are divided, we do not stop at evaluations such as “the quality of human resources is the problem” or “the head office is not acting,” but rather return to what facts are different and what needs to be checked to make a decision. At the end of the meeting, leave not only additional information to gather, but also what decisions to make with that information.

Supplement: 12 items to check before and after hiring

Business policy

1. Which market/customer and which problem will you solve?
2. Why do customers choose your company? Can you explain the basis and hypothesis separately?
3. Can you share the assumptions for profitability, including the necessary expenses and investments?
4. What should you check and under what conditions should you review your policy and investment allocation?

role to be entrusted to

1. What are the results that the responsible person is responsible for, and what scope is not responsible?
2. To what extent can you be involved in determining prices, hiring, budgets, etc. necessary for results?
3. Who decides what among the head office, local, and existing managers?
4. Which combination of external recruitment, internal promotion, training, and external support should be used?

daily execution

1. Who should check customer, business performance, and profitability information and how often?
2. When a decision is stopped, what should you prepare, who should you report it to, and by when?
3. Who will support understanding and implementation after taking the position, and how will conditions at the head office be reviewed?
4. How should we pass on the reasons for our decisions and how we proceed with our work to the rest of the company?

Divide each item into “confirmed/hypothesized/unconfirmed” and write down the basis and next action. The total score does not determine business feasibility or whether or not an applicant can be hired. Please use this information to notice important unconfirmed matters and make the next decision.

About GCI support

GCI compares the validity of the business strategy with the execution conditions of human resources, organization, and operations, and determines what needs to be changed. Depending on the issue, we combine roles and authority, recruitment, promotion, training, business management, joint execution, and gradual transfer.

During the first consultation, we will discuss the issues you are facing and how we can proceed with support. For diagnoses that involve investigation, analysis, and reporting, we will propose the target, deliverables, and costs, and begin once we have agreed upon them.