Excellence without borders Regional teams help navigate the complexities of operating internationally By Bill Seil BStates, and each day they face new chal-oeing has more than 9,000 employeesbased in 70 countries outside the United lenges involving the laws, regulations and customs of individual countries and jurisdictions. “If you’re going to put an employee or inventory into an overseas location, that inevitably triggers a number of compliance requirements with local laws and regulations,” said Paul Kinscherff, chief financial officer for Boeing International. John Demers, Boeing International’s general counsel, added, “We need to conform to local rules, while efficiently pursuing our business ob- jectives. This can be challenging, considering the number of jurisdictions in which we do business.” But operating internationally recently became easier than ever for Boeing—and for employees. Five newly created regional teams, representing the functions on the Boeing International leader- ship team, are prepared to help with a wide range of issues, large and small. It could be providing assistance with legal and financial matters, global staffing support, information technology setup or furnishing new facilities. In the Middle East, for example, the group has begun to tackle visa issues in a systematic fashion to make it easier for Boeing to move people in and out of region. Whatever the need, the purpose of these Boeing teams is to serve as “one-stop shops” to support the local Boeing International and business unit leaders. “We have designed an elegant and effective solution to address our global challenges and opportunities,” said Shep Hill, president, Boeing International, and senior vice president, Business Development and Strategy. “It gives our business units an important new tool to operate internation- ally and projects a unified ‘One Boeing’ presence in the countries where we do business.” The teams are called Regional Functional 40 BOEING FRONTIERS / DECEMBER 2012–JANUARY 2013
Frontiers December 2012/January 2013 Issue
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