Globetrotting Has Made CEO of Berwyn’s TE Connectivity a Better Leader

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Image of TE Connectivity’s Terrence Curtin via Michael Bryant, Philadelphia Inquirer.

Adjusting to jet lag, time zones, and cultural differences certainly complicates business deals, but it also makes a better leader, according to TE Connectivity CEO Terrence R. Curtin.

Based in Berwyn, the $12.2 billion maker of connectors and sensors has “always been global, and we just get more global,” Curtin said in a Philadelphia Inquirer report by Jane Von Bergen. “We have a $1 billion business in Japan, close to a $1 billion business in Korea, a $2 billion business in China. Then every country in Europe we’re in.

“I’ve had the pleasure to experience the tension between when a German talks to a Frenchman, an Eastern Bloc person is talking to an Italian. It’s actually an asset for us. I’ve got to experience over the past 25 years all of that.”

Curtin has learned to make eye contact with Germans, avoid a blunt “no” in Latin cultures, and periodically pause while speaking to Asians.

“I always say, ‘Don’t shy away from those (experiences),’” he said. “I know that it may feel harder, but when you think about our world, which is a more global world, I also look at the benefit I’ve had. You should push yourself into those opportunities.

“What I like about our company is we, at times, move people, so if you want to live somewhere else in the world, we have people that go for a year or two. It will make you a better person.”

Read more about the lessons Terrence Curtin has learned while traveling the world in the Philadelphia Inquirer here, and check out previous VISTA Today coverage of TE Connectivity here.

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