Interview With Mr. Charles Kolb
From APEC HRDWG Wiki
This interview was held on October 8, 2010, with Mr. Charles Kolb, President of the Committee for Economic Development (CED). This interview is provided with Mr. Kolb's permission.
What skills do you see as necessary to work in multinational companies in APEC economies?
I see communication skills as very important. Workers in multinational companies need to be able to think clearly and communicate those thoughts clearly to other people. This may sound simplistic, but it isn’t; it’s very important in multinational business. I’ve seen a decline in the communication skills of new hires, even among those who have graduated from good schools. I think the use of technologies such as E-mail, Facebook, and Twitter have a role in this decline. Simply put, we need people who are able to take complex ideas and issues, simplify them, and communicate them well. The ability to speak other languages is extremely important. Students should be fluent in English and at least one other foreign language.
What challenges are multinational companies facing in recruiting young people?
Young people must realize that competition is now global. A new book, "The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities are Shaping the World," by Ben Wildavsky, makes this case well. There’s global competition to get into our universities, and students graduating from universities face competition as well. For the first time in our history, competition is global.
After these young people are hired, what challenges do these companies face in working with them?
If you read the Committee for Economic Development report, Education for Global Leadership, you will note that a number of companies do not speak positively about the talents of young people who are coming to work for them. Companies are now spending millions of dollars on retraining people, teaching basic skills that should have been learned during the educational years. Of course, whenever an individual joins a company, he or she has things to learn, but now fundamental skills connected to reading and writing must often be taught. This costs companies both time and money.
What challenges are there in hiring and retaining women?
The numbers of women in multinational business are improving. The trend in the United States is toward increasing numbers of women in the workforce. We are also seeing this trend in many parts of the world, particularly within developing economies, where women are very important to sustained economic growth. It is very important that women within the APEC economies continue to enter the workforce. For more information, read the CED report, Reducing Global Poverty: The Role of Women in Development.
Is there anything else you would like to say about this topic?
Every child needs to be immersed in international studies - it’s not the icing, it’s the cake. The United States tends to be somewhat isolated as a nation, but we can’t afford that now. We can no longer get by with just English.
