local sales subsidiary to handle its export activities in a country. It then staffs this subsidiary with local hires be- cause it believes they are likely to have a much better idea of how to sell in their own country than American expatriates. Because of the implementation of this prin- ciple, just 160 of 3M's 39,500 foreign employees are U.S. expatriates. Another common practice at 3M is to formulate global strategic plans for the export and eventual overseas pro- duction of its products. Within the context of these plans, 3M gives local managers considerable autonomy to find the best way to sell the product within their country. Thus, when 3M first exported its Post-it notes, it planned to "sample the daylights" out of the product, but it also told local managers to find the best way of doing this. Local managers hired office cleaning crews to pass out samples in Great Britain and Germany; in Italy, they used office products distributors to pass out free samples; while in Malaysia, iocal managers employed young women to go from office to office handing out samples of the product. In typical 3M fashion, when the volume of Post-it notes was sufficient to justify it, local produc- tion replaced exports from the United States. Thus, after several years 3 found it worthwhile to set up produc- tion facilities in France to produce Post-it notes for the European market. 19