COMPANY job titles and the responsibilities arising from them are not clear to many foreign businesspeople and confusion over positions could prove costly, a recent seminar was told.

U Aye Kyaw, managing director of Myanmar Human Resources, told a meeting last month that inaccurate job titles could result in both misunderstandings in dealings with foreign companies and lost commercial opportunities.

The seminar in Yangon was hosted jointly by the Myanmar Fisheries Federation and the Myanmar Shrimp Association. It was the 20th such meeting hosted this year by the two organisations as part of a program aimed at building capacity in the private sector.

U Aye Kyaw said company job titles were often inaccurate even though the Companies Act had been promulgated in 1989.

Senior executives at Myanmar companies often used the title “director” on their business cards but did not indicate whether the director was an executive director or non-executive director, he said.

Although non-executive directors were members of their company’s board of directors, they could not legally sign bonds or contracts on behalf of the company. As such, foreign managers could easily be misled over whether they were dealing with an authorised negotiator, U Aye Kyaw said.

All board members attend meetings to set company policies but only executive directors implement board decisions and non-executive directors are not authorised to instruct company managers.

“So you can see the importance of showing the correct job titles on business cards to avoid misunderstandings with foreign counterparts,” U Aye Kyaw said.

He added that mistakes were also common in the job titles of marketing professionals and those holding secretarial positions.