Business leaders are increasingly looking to send management level staff on international assignments rather than going themselves, according to the Institute of Directors (IoD).
Brian Hall, chairman of the world trade group at the Institute of Directors, also highlighted that developing nations are increasingly resistant to “flown in talent”.
Hall told delegates at the Health & Protection IPMI Summit that recipient countries are increasingly asking if the business owner is not going to come to their country – why are they sending someone else from the UK?
“Why can’t we develop somebody in here in country?” Hall (pictured) added.
“And there’s a significant push back from the developing nations from being what I would call on the receiving end against flown-in talent.
“So what we’re seeing is in-country representatives saying, ‘We’ll take what we absolutely need but we want to build everything else here’.”
But where SME leaders do send over managers from the UK to do business, Hall added that it was important they have taken out health and protection insurance.
“What is missing is from the management level,” he continued.
“So yes, the director has got PMI in place. He’s got critical illness in place. He’s got gold plated travel insurance. The ops manager who has now been sent to Dubai instead hasn’t.”
Flying by seat of their pants
However, Hall added this lack of cover can apply equally to the business leader themselves, with Hall claiming it was terrifying the number of times the IoD came across businesses where shareholders and directors had not taken out critical illness, life or income protection cover.
Consequently, Hall advised leaders not to “fly by the seat of their pants”.
“Have protection around you,” he said.
“So if you are, as one of my colleagues was recently, in Washington in a bar with a client and the next thing find yourself waking up in a hospital emergency room thinking, ‘how did I get here?’ after passing out through internal bleeding you didn’t know existed – have a plan B for Christ’s sake.
“How are you going to get your help? Who is going to come to your rescue? How does that work?”