For Corporate Boards, a Global Search

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"We're going to see a lot more of this," says Roger Kenny, president of Boardroom Consultants, which is recruiting directors in India and China for at least two large pharmaceutical companies he wouldn't identify. "Clearly there's a trend."

Directors who hail from emerging markets can help Western companies build strategic bridges to business and government officials, navigate bureaucratic and legal thickets, and gauge the impact of decisions made in Cincinnati or Basel on customers in Delhi or Shanghai. Indian and Chinese board members can also stand toe to toe with management on decisions about how to proceed in Asia. "They're looking for someone just as smart" as top executives, says Stephen Mader, vice-chairman at Korn/Ferry International (KFY). "These companies are all glued into China in major-league ways. This is not rookie year."

For SAP, whose software runs the accounting, manufacturing, and inventory systems of many of the world's largest companies, one challenge is globalizing its upper ranks without losing its German identity. While it expands overseas, it's being careful not to cut jobs at home, both to ensure employees' loyalty and to trade on the reputation for German quality. "We are a global company with roots in Germany," Kagermann says. "And you should be proud of your roots.…There's still a good name around 'Made in Germany.'"

Tech Companies Covet Asia Market Insight

Given demand by an emerging middle class of consumers in India, China, and the Middle East for laptops and cell phones—as well as the need for those countries' industries to modernize their computer systems—technology companies are natural candidates to diversify their boards. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) gets 70% of its revenue from overseas, IBM (IBM) about two-thirds, Cisco Systems (CSCO) 45%. "If you look at the companies we consider American, look at their revenue. They're not American anymore," says Vivek Wadhwa, an engineering professor at Duke University and a fellow at Harvard Law School.

Little wonder tech companies covet board members who know emerging markets, says Heather Bellini, a software analyst at UBS (UBS). "Asia is such a huge growth area," she says. But most of the action so far has been in banking, manufacturing, and consumer products. Ratan Tata, chairman of Indian conglomerate Tata Group, in 2007 joined aluminum producer Alcoa's (AA) board. Turkish executive Muhtar Kent, who became CEO of Coca-Cola (KO) on July 1, had been a director since 2006. And Mukesh Ambani, chairman of oil company Reliance Industries and India's richest man, sits on an advisory board for Citigroup (C), though he's not a director.

Part of the reason is that companies in the U.S.—home to most of the tech sector—can recruit from a bigger pool of potential directors at home. U.S.