Building the Global TMT — Staff Helvetia for Horizon Asia

A four-round, advanced international-management simulation set inside Helvetia Precision Group, a Swiss industrial-technology firm (CHF 2.3B revenue, 16% EBIT, 8,900 staff across 14 countries) headquartered in Winterthur. Newly public on SIX Swiss Exchange and dangerously Europe-concentrated (68% EU / 22% NA / 10% APAC), Helvetia has approved 'Horizon Asia' — a three-year plan to triple Asia-Pacific revenue from CHF 230M to CHF 690M through entries into Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia. The problem: the nine-person executive committee is 89% Swiss/German with zero Asia operating experience — the most homogeneous-ever leadership staffing the firm's biggest international bet. As incoming CEO you rebuild the top-management team under hard constraints: the committee may grow from 9 to a maximum of 12 seats, you have a CHF 18M annual senior-leadership-and-relocation budget (it funds roughly 6–7 senior moves against a wish list of 11), and the first two market entries must launch within 12 months before a competitor consolidates the region. Built directly on Ruigrok's research (FIM-HSG, St Gallen) on TMT nationality and international-experience diversity and Upper Echelons theory (Hambrick & Mason), the simulation operationalises the core finding that more internationally and experientially diverse top teams internationalise more successfully — while surfacing the boundary conditions (cohesion, decision speed, integration cost) that decide whether diversity converts into performance or friction. Across four rounds you (1) diagnose the team-strategy gap and set a target diversity profile; (2) staff the executive committee from a candidate slate of internal Europe veterans, external Asia-experienced hires of varied nationalities, and relocations — within 12 seats and CHF 18M; (3) sequence the four entries to match the team and bandwidth you actually have and invest in integration; and (4) read the 12- and 36-month results and defend your TMT design to the board against entry speed, integration cost and expansion ROI. The math rewards adding the RIGHT diversity (not the most), preserving a core of European continuity, sequencing two entries first, and integrating the team — and measurably punishes the five classic errors: the cohesion trap, diversity overload, constraint denial, simultaneous overreach, and integration neglect. Final KPIs track the TMT Diversity Index, Team Cohesion, Entry Readiness and realised Expansion ROI toward the CHF 690M target.