What I did notice however is that the pick can have a lot of influence on how the company will develop in country, especially in terms of overall "company culture".
Of course. Success and failure sit at either end of a spectrum, with most executives sitting somewhere along that line. A company lucky or careful enough to put the right person in any job will get good results. In my experience that process has a lot more to do with internal politics and professional networks than anything resembling a formal process or set of rules.