Are some people better suited for international business than others?
JT: Absolutely – er, what companies still tend to do is select people for international business and business assignments, er, purely based on their skill set. So if you're the best civil engineer or you're the greatest IT consultant in the business, it is often thought that this fully equips you to be the best person to conduct that business internationally. Clearly those skills are very important, but they have to be underpinned by, I think, a number of personal traits that make you a more effective international businessperson. Some of those traits – um, adaptability: you have got to be prepared to adapt the way that you do business or adapt your expectations or your needs, to meet the needs of the culture of the people that you're doing business with – so, adaptability; flexibility is obviously very important. Er, you've got to be prepared to actually change the parameters with which you were intending to do business.