patrick.net

pkennedy says

It’s really only worth setting up a HQ in another country if you have a large enough need for it. If you’ve got 3-5 positions to fill, it’s really not worth it. Trying to manage a small number of people over such distances can be a real headache. Especially when there are cultural differences, and when those people aren’t involved directly in products all of the time.

They are not HQ, They are regional Sales offices operated as legal entity in order to do business on behalf of the Parent Company. Done everyday. Our typical sales staff in 12 other countries has anywhere from 1 to 5 sales people per each country. Some are bigger, like India 125. Typically you just rent out a Regus Office Suite (Rent an Office) on a month to month basis for a small staff. Runs for 500-1000 USD per month.

The sales people who do a lot better than Engineers since they log in sales and earn hefty sales/service commissions. The foreign sales team have no motivation into moving out of their sales territory and lose future sales commissions, which can be substantial.

pkennedy says

Unofficial/non meeting related conversations are often missed as well, leaving people in other locations blind. It really makes it difficult to get a lot of good work from those people then.
So having people come here, to work locally is very cost effective. I’ve worked with teams where people were flying back and forth all the time. People were having issues syncing up, time differences were causing headaches for all (6am meetings, or midnight meetings), etc.

LOL! I done that many times over every quarter with each of our foreign entities. That is the cost of doing business, otherwise its all emails. Once a year our world wide sales org has a kick off meeting, when all the teams come here for a beer bash and talk about Sales objectives.

from page B3 of today's San Jose Mercury News:

"Parents raising funds to save teacher jobs"

"A group of parents hoping to prevent more than 100 teachers in the Cupertino Union School DIstrict Union School from losing their jobs kicked off a massive fundraising campaign Tuesday at Nimitz Elementary School in Sunnyvale that attracted a packed and raucous house, including dozens of students with piggy banks ready to contribute to the cause".

"Parents organizing the 'Their Future is Now' campaign hope to raise $3 million by May 15 to save as many as 107 K-08 teachers from receiving pink slips."

California will be even cheaper once the Chinese currency appreciates.