After Sept. 11, the general outcry was, "Why don't we have better overseas capabilities?" I fear that in the years to come this refrain will be heard again: once a threat -- or God forbid, another successful attack -- captures our attention and sends the pendulum swinging back.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump criticized Apple's overseas production capabilities a number of times during his campaign, citing lost jobs for America, pledging, for example, "We're going to get Apple to build their damn computers and things in this country instead of in other countries".
The hard truth is that the homegrown postgraduate population is pitifully thin, so companies such as Rolls-Royce take their research and engineering capability overseas.
Not only will this initiative take the capability overseas – for the benefit of other patients and healthcare systems – but it could help recruit high-calibre clinical and scientific talent, making these organisations more exciting places to work.
We now know Snowden released detailed information about US foreign spying habits and cyber warfare capabilities overseas -- information whose release is very damaging to US interests.
The shift is particularly visible in cases where Chinese companies are investing overseas to acquire the capability to develop new technologies, expertise in supporting sustainable development, well-known brands, or processes to manufacture quality consumer goods.
The foundation had a clear development mandate from the outset: to "utilise the capabilities of overseas Koreans for national development in line with its globalisation policy".
In addition, Germany was stripped of its overseas colonies, its military capabilities were severely restricted, and it was required to pay war reparations to the Allied countries.
Arab News, Saudi Arabia's leading English-language newspaper, this week quoted Saudi officials as saying that AQAP, widely believed to be well advanced in its ability to target aircraft with explosives smuggled on board, had lost its capability to operate overseas.
Moving first allowed Caterpillar to get a lock on overseas sales channels and service capabilities.
Pushes from home are indispensable, but if companies are to use international expansion to move up the value curve, they also need to invest in the management capabilities of their overseas units to provide pull from abroad.
