Johannesburg - South African companies are increasingly recruiting foreigners for top jobs as they expand abroad and seek to plug a skills gap at home, but pressure on them to meet quotas on black staff is likely to curb this trend.
Food and clothing retailer Woolworths this week said it had appointed Andrew Jennings, a senior executive at luxury US retailer Saks, as its head of retail.
Jennings follows American Steve Ross, who has turned around fashion retailer Edgars Consolidated Stores (Edcon) since taking the helm in 1998, and Deutsche Telekom's former US head, Jeffrey Hedberg, who was poached by South African mobile phone firm Cell C to become chief executive in May.
Africa's biggest cell phone company, MTN, appointed board members from Saudi Arabia, Germany and Nigeria to provide fresh experience after it agreed to buy Dubai-based Investcom - a deal that expands its presence in Africa and the Middle East.
"As South African companies internationalise, they are increasingly recruiting foreign talent," said independent analyst Reg Rumney.
"Under apartheid, coming to South Africa was obviously not a career-enhancing move ... but now we are no longer a pariah state, we have joined the globalised world of talent shopping."
South Africa on the radar
Encouraged by greater stability in Africa, South African firms are muscling north into the poorest continent and attracting increased interest from foreign investors looking for exposure to some of the world's least tapped markets.
A more stable rand, steady economic growth fuelled by low interest rates and a burgeoning black middle class have also helped attract investors.
Companies sometimes face pressure from a growing foreign shareholder base to 'globalise' management. Some such as MTN and the fast-expanding retailers also need international experience as they take their first tentative steps abroad.
A shortage of skills at home due to a brain drain among white executives after the end of apartheid and to skewed education policies under white rule has intensified the trend.
Meanwhile, South Africa's relatively smooth transition to multi-racial democracy, its economic policies and its position as a springboard to the rest of Africa have made it attractive for high-flying executives seeking a new experience.
"The consciousness of South Africa as a successful emerging market is growing, which is putting it on the radar of a lot of high-level executives," said Michael Spicer, chief executive of Business Leadership South Africa, which represents the heads of the country's top blue-chip companies.
BEE likely to act as a constraint
Experts also warn, however, that South Africa will not be able to import CEOs with quite the same vigour as some other countries due to the government's black empowerment drive, which is aimed at shifting economic power to the black majority.
Companies meet quotas on black staff and management, and those with too many "pale males" at senior executive and board level face pressure from the government and may lose out on public sector contracts.
"Companies importing too much talent are going to run into political problems," said Rumney, who conceded it might have been politically easier for state-owned companies such as South African Airways to bring in foreign white executives instead of sticking with white South African managers after apartheid.
"As long as the JSE (stock exchange) is full of white faces at CEO level, then there is going to be government pressure to train their own black executives not to look abroad."