[uk12345]

The statistic of people moving into senior management on moving 'home' suggests that companies in developing economies feel that they need American trained executives to compete with American companies.

So all this might mean is that middle managers in US companies are being automatically promoted into senior jobs in foreign companies because those companies feel insecure. This is great for the bank balance of those people but doesn't necessarily mean a great deal for the company.

It's also not a new phenomena - having a 'BtA' (Been to America) used to be almost a requirement for promotion in UK academia or medicine. It didn't lead to a huge amount of innovation in the NHS.

[eugenejen]

At the same time, when economy of China/India has enough domestic demands to sustain itself, the need for U.S. trained managers will decline. For those middle managers, betting the growth of domestic markets and starting to learn the market from now on also plays a factor.

[uk12345]

I don't think that it is necessarily a need for US trained managers - I just think that some fairly average Indians and Chinese middle managers working in the US have seen that they can leverage their 'American Experience' into a better job back home.

Rather than a reverse brain drain - it could just be the Dilbert principle.

[Daishiman]

It's not an American thing, it's a first-world thing. Academics and businessmen in BRIC countries value colleagues who have seen the workings of first-world economies, since BRCI countries are mostly targeting customers in those places, or looking up to them in terms of technological innovation.