Eileen Roche

As he walked into work on a rainy Thursday morning, John Dooley felt cheerful despite the bleak weather. BioSol, the global biotechnology corporation he worked for, had recently made significant progress in its therapeutic antibody for the treatment of adult and juvenile asthma. If the momentum continued, it would mean great things not only for the company but also for the thousands of people who suffered from the illness. On a personal level, John’s own career could get a real boost as well. Hadn’t his boss, Niall Doyle, said as much yesterday, when he told John that corporate headquarters was impressed and suggested they meet today to talk about future plans?

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Reprint: R0511A
John Dooley, BioSol&#8217;s vice president of strategic research, has been making a name for himself at the biotechnology company&#8217;s offices in Ireland. He&#8217;s been doing so well, in fact, that the firm has offered him a promotion to director of strategy at headquarters&#8212;in California.
He&#8217;s lived abroad before. In the 1980s, making a living in Ireland was tough: Jobs were scarce and unemployment was high. So John and his wife, Fiona, moved to Massachusetts, where John attended MIT. They were not alone; many of their friends and family members also moved out of Ireland then. John and Fiona enjoyed their time in Boston; they became active in a large expatriate community and established reputations in their professional fields.
By 1999, however, the Celtic Tiger was running at full speed. The Irish economy was booming and the whole country seemed to be bursting with possibility. When John was offered a job at BioSol&#8217;s Dublin subsidiary, he and Fiona moved home and never looked back&#8212;until now. The new promotion would give his career a huge boost, but accepting it would mean uprooting his family and becoming an expat again. Ireland&#8217;s economy is going strong now, but what if it doesn&#8217;t last? Should John cast his lot with his country or his company?
Commenting on this fictional case study are Raj Kondur, the CEO of Nirvana Business Solutions in Bangalore, India; James Citrin, a senior director at Spencer Stuart in Stamford, Connecticut; Maurice Treacy, the director of biotechnology at Science Foundation Ireland in Dublin; and Arno Haslberger, who teaches HR management at Webster University Vienna in Austria, and Sharman Esarey, also based in Vienna, editor of the annual report of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Riding the Celtic Tiger

Reprint: R0511A John Dooley, BioSol’s vice president of strategic research, has been making a name for himself at the biotechnology company’s offices in Ireland. He’s been doing so well, in fact, that the firm has offered him a promotion to director of strategy at headquarters—in California. He’s lived abroad before. In the 1980s, making a living in Ireland was tough: Jobs were scarce and unemployment was high. So John and his wife, Fiona, moved to Massachusetts, where John attended MIT. They were not alone; many of their friends and family members also moved out of Ireland then. John and Fiona enjoyed their time in Boston; they became active in a large expatriate community and established reputations in their professional fields. By 1999, however, the Celtic Tiger was running at full speed. The Irish economy was booming and the whole country seemed to be bursting with possibility. When John was offered a job at BioSol’s Dublin subsidiary, he and Fiona moved home and never looked back—until now. The new promotion would give his career a huge boost, but accepting it would mean uprooting his family and becoming an expat again. Ireland’s economy is going strong now, but what if it doesn’t last? Should John cast his lot with his country or his company? Commenting on this fictional case study are Raj Kondur, the CEO of Nirvana Business Solutions in Bangalore, India; James Citrin, a senior director at Spencer Stuart in Stamford, Connecticut; Maurice Treacy, the director of biotechnology at Science Foundation Ireland in Dublin; and Arno Haslberger, who teaches HR management at Webster University Vienna in Austria, and Sharman Esarey, also based in Vienna, editor of the annual report of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Riding the Celtic Tiger

Summary.

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