Second-rate foreigners

Criticizing foreigners for their lack of knowledge of local conditions is fashionable. Václav Klaus complains of consultants experts advisers who "parachute in." Škoda Auto Chairman Vratislav Kulhánek said last year that investors can't expect to be successful here if they send second-rate managers. Analyst Michal Rostock of Venture Investors said in Hospodářské noviny yesterday that it's as difficult to find a quality Czech auditor in Bulgaria or Greece as it is to find a quality English or American consultant in the CR. He told us that in his experience, those foreigners who can't get jobs at home are advising clients in the CR. In our work, we sometimes run into foreigners who are almost proud of their ignorance of local laws, politics or even traffic signs. In some cases, though, foreigners are better informed than many Czechs. No one complains about the first-rate foreigners.