One of the oft-repeated excuses for high executive pay is the need to compete for top talent in an international market. A scan through a list of heads of FTSE 100 companies certainly shows just how many boards go abroad for their boss: 41 of the UK’s top 100 chief executives are foreigners, including three who are now naturalised Brits. They come from 14 different countries, from Mexico to the Ivory Coast and India. But a market ought to be a two-way exchange, and while we import senior managers from overseas, where are the British businessmen heading foreign public companies?
There is a serious trade deficit in boardroom bosses. Are there barriers that block Britain exporting its executives to foreign corporations — or do our managers fail to meet the high standards demanded by companies abroad?
It could, of course, be that Britain is so wonderful as a place to live and work that no directors ever want to leave, while foreign executives are waiting at Calais to escape their homeland by hiding in lorries heading for the home counties. Or perhaps not. A better excuse might be that British companies have long been ahead of the game in international expansion and thus often recruit chiefs from their own overseas divisions or set out to recruit new leaders who understand the global picture. But that is almost as arrogant an argument because, while Britain punches above its weight by accommodating a quarter of Europe’s top 100 companies, the other three quarters are not recruiting Britons as bosses.
Detailed analysis of these immigrant executives provides a better explanation: London has long been a capital of the world mining industry despite its lack of mines, so it is understandable if the top directors come from mineral-rich nations.
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