Companies has indicated a significant increase among multi-national businesses ranging from manufacturing companies to food and hotel industries (rphrm.curtin.edu.au). The use of expatriates as a means of ensuring that businesses succeed in international markets has been associated with various benefits. Yum brand is an American Fast Food Company, with over 40,000 restaurants distributed in various parts of the World. Yum brand has implemented various operational strategies geared towards facilitating its success in the current highly competitive fast food industry.
One of the operational strategies that has been applied by the company to facilitate its success in foreign markets i.e. China is the application of expatriates, who are sent to manage its branches in foreign markets. This discussion will focus on ways that may be used by the company to increase expatriate effectiveness i.e. how the company may select, prepare and train its employees for an expatriate assignment. Additionally, the discussion will focus on describing how the company may ensure appropriate repatriation of its employees i.e. safe return of the expatriates to the company in the United States. The discussion will also highlight and explicate characteristics of the Host Country, which is China, placing a particular emphasis on why Yum Brands sent its expatriates to the Chinese Market.
The effective performance of an expatriate in any foreign country begins by the selection process. In the case of Yum Brand, the selection of a employees to undertake expatriate missions in China should be based on selection characteristics that consider. technical competencies of employees, family situation i.e. considering whether one is married or not, personality traits i.e. inter-personal skills or an employee’s interest in performing expatriate missions and environmental variables i.e. cultural dimensions of the host nation as well as the needs of a qualified expatriate (rphrm.curtin.edu.au).