Why Cross-Border Executive Hires Fail

A cross-border leadership hire fails more often than a domestic one, and almost never for the reason the post-mortem records. The file will say "not the right fit" or "couldn't build the team." What it rarely says is that the person hired was, on paper, an obvious choice. They usually are. That is the whole problem. The short answer Cross-border executive hires rarely fail on capability. The person can do the work; their record is real and it survives the move. They fail on identity: who they are in relation to a specific market, organisation and moment, which a CV cannot show and a border makes harder to read. Capability travels. Identity does not. Get that distinction wrong and you have hired a strong profile into a role it was never going to hold. The number that gets quoted, and the number that matters The figure that circulates is that roughly two in five new executives stumble with

source https://kitalent.com/articles/why-cross-border-executive-hires-fail