Leadership

Euro v. U.S. Execs on Globalization: It's All About Retaining Talent

By Jessica Stillman

Updated on: May 13, 2008 / 10:31 AM EDT / MoneyWatch

The Find: While 90 percent of CEOs worldwide view globalization as both inevitable and positive, American business leaders are significantly more worried about retaining talent in a flat world than their counterparts in Europe.
The Source: The EquaTerra Globalization Study conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of EquaTerra, which surveyed more than 500 business leaders in North America, Europe and Asia on their opinions about globalization.

The Takeaway: While 44 percent of respondents said that their biggest worry over the next three years was retaining high quality talent, executives based in North America were 12 percent more likely than their European counterparts to cite globalization as making it more difficult to find and retain local staff with the necessary skills and experience. European CEOs were more concerned with funding expansion into new markets and the growth of competition.

The Question: What's behind the anxiety of U.S. business leaders? Is the issue simply that not enough Americans are getting the training and skills they need to succeed? Or are Europeans bosses finding it easier to lure talent from around the world?