Expat networks key to success

[george]

Expat networks key to success

The Nation:

Baker and Mackenzie's chairman talks to K I Woo about global networking.

Businessmen who venture away from their home countries can enhance their business opportunities by tapping into the huge expatriate communities long-entrenched in many foreign countries.

John Hancock, chairman of Baker and Mackenzie (Thailand), said many Australian businesses and their representatives, however, tended to venture out on their own when they first enter foreign countries.

Hancock, an Australian, has lived in Thailand for more than three decades.

"I don't know what it is, but many Australian businessmen exert a fierce independence when they first come to Thailand," he said.

For years, this fierce sense of independence was also exhibited in how the Australian government viewed its overseas nationals.

"It was only last year that Australia amended its law so that its citizens could hold dual nationality," he said.

In the past, an Australian adopting citizenship of another country would lose their nationality.

"Rupert Murdoch, one of Australia's greatest businessmen, had to give up his Australian citizenship to pursue his global business interests," Hancock said.

The recent legal change allowing for dual nationality may have resulted from a growing awareness of the importance of a country's nationals who have developed overseas roots.

"In the past, many countries didn't look outward when considering citizenship policies," he said.

Recently, the Business Review Weekly, a leading Australian publication, selected and profiled 20 powerful Australians who work in Asia. Hancock was among the illustrious group.

The magazine spent considerable time interviewing prominent Australians throughout Asia.

"This project showed a new awareness of the expat's importance to Australia's future development," he said.

All the other Australian leaders were people, like Hancock, who have lived and worked in Asia for decades and ranged in ages from the mid-40s to their mid-70s.

These businessmen operate in China, Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand.

Singapore-based Owen Howell-Price, chairman of Dairy Farm's South Asia division, was the oldest businessman chosen, at 77. He is semi-retired, but Howell-Price still watches over the company's US$4 billion (Bt160 billion) regional business.

Hancock came to Bangkok after graduating from law school at the University of Adelaide, where he met his future wife, a Thai who was attending the same university.

Operating in the new globalisation era, Hancock said Australian companies are being forced to look outward to develop growth and scale. These companies can enhance their chances by tapping into the huge number of Australian expat businessmen.

A country's political and economic development can be greatly enhanced by carefully cultivating the resources of its overseas nationals. Australian companies venturing overseas should be encouraged to tap the networks of expats who have lived overseas for a long time.

Hancock also referred to the example of social capital's importance in the development of Thailand's economy. Networks developed among Chinese traders with the indigenous community were critical in the development of the economy here.

"Australian businessmen should develop similar mechanisms where everyone benefits from accessing each other's networks," he said.

In his three decades of building Baker and Mackenzie into the Kingdom's largest legal practice, Hancock has undoubtedly relied on extensive networking skills.

As his career winds down, he is confident that many of these skills can be used to assist Australian and Thai businesses throughout Asia.

"Many companies have finally learned that it's a tremendous waste of resources to have people running around a foreign country and not really knowing anybody," he said.

In most cases, even major companies venturing into Asia must be personally introduced by a credible person who can give them immediate access to top people.

"That credibility is normally developed after many years of operating in the environment," he said.

--The Nation 2003-10-29

[davidm]

Words of wisdom, but, like a typical independent foreigner, I've ignored them for years. I'd like to join an expats club in Bangkok but I'm very confused by the two clubs listed in this forum as they appear to be in conflict. As the posts about the split are a few months old, does anyone have an update?