DAVID Newbigging, former chairman and chief executive of Jardine Matheson, says many British firms have taken the wrong approach to international expansion by entering foreign markets without the proper skills or knowledge.
Mr Newbigging told a British Chamber of Commerce luncheon yesterday that such skills included commonsense tools such as speaking the right language, and that the problem reflected weak management ability rather than the incompetence of employees on the shop floor.
He cited a British company with 132,000 employees that was trying to do business in China without having any employees who spoke Chinese.
Mr Newbigging said: ''A large number of business leaders have not worked overseas; they do not speak the language and do not want to travel or put in the time needed.
''As a result, they can't get under the skin of a country.'' Making his first public appearance in Hong Kong since retiring from Jardine Matheson in 1984, Mr Newbigging was particularly critical of Britain's inability to capture a larger stake of China's growing appetite for imported products.
Between 1987 and 1992, he said UK exports to China had climbed to only GBP430 million (about HK$4.94 billion) from GBP413 million - a negative growth rate when inflation was considered.
