The immigrant discount
The immigrant discount As a management consultant, I once worked on a landmark study that became significant for the firm. I managed to turn around the study when it was running well behind schedule. I ended up playing a key role in a road show to raise funding to launch a financial services company in Eastern Europe. I met billionaires, government officials, and CEOs of major companies. In that study, we figured out that there was a segment of the population that was profitable to serve since they submitted fewer insurance claims. Our goal was to build an entire business around them. This study was so successful that I became good friends with the billionaire owner of the business and his wife. This study made my career. I even wrote up the work as an article that the firm sent to all our clients. When I moved to the USA and Canada, that successful study was painfully discounted in the eyes of recruiters and my employers. Since it was an African company exploring opportunities in Eastern Europe, people in Canada and the USA automatically assumed the study was not prestigious and they had nothing to learn from the insights. That is ironic, considering that…