Large companies moving some operations abroad may not have the adverse economic effects that President-elect Donald Trump built up during his campaign and following the election, former Medtronic CEO Bill George told CNBC on Tuesday.

On the contrary, George said sending jobs to foreign countries could actually expand U.S. operations.

"For companies like Boeing, General Electric, Ford, Medtronic, every time you add a job overseas, you add three jobs here for all the [research and development] people, engineering process people, manufacturing experts, marketing, sales, administration," he told CNBC's "Squawk Alley."

In addition to his deal with manufacturing company Carrier to keep about 1,000 jobs from moving to Mexico, Trump recently targeted chain-belt maker Rexnord for plans to move 300 jobs to Mexico.

"If you don't [move operations] overseas, you'll lose the market to foreign competitors and then you won't have any of the jobs here, so I think there's a little misunderstanding," George said.