BOOK REVIEW: How to do business abroad

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By Peter Hannaford

CARRY A CHICKEN IN YOUR LAP

OR, WHATEVER IT TAKES TO

GLOBALIZE YOUR BUSINESS

By Bruce Alan Johnson and

R. William Ayres

St. Martin's Press. 214 page. $24.99

Reviewed by Peter Hannaford

This may be the ultimate how-to/how-not-to book for American companies selecting men and women to represent them overseas.

The authors claim, "Every year, American corporations send thousands of employees overseas. Around 75 percent fail. Because it costs roughly $300,000 a year to maintain an employee overseas and the average assignment runs four years, this means they are spending $1.2 million per employee sent abroad."

Bruce Alan Johnson and R. William Ayres have half a century between them of doing business overseas and counseling companies on how to succeed internationally. "Carry a Chicken in Your Lap" is a distillation of what they have learned over the years.