Multinational Companies Should Take Advantage Of A Hidden Asset: Multicultural Managers

Multicultural managers – often unseen and unrecognized in multinational companies – have a lot to contribute to the success of global innovation projects, according to a case study published in the Harvard Business Review. L’Oreal’s multicultural minds were able to be creative, to share complex knowledge across locations, contexts and cultures and to manage global innovation and product development teams effectively, according to the author. Multicultural managers in integrative roles made a positive difference in the innovative process at the brand. According to a L’Oreal executive, “Multiculturals have a kind of gymnastic intellectual training to think as if they were French, American, or Chinese and all together inside them.”