…Leaders in the global environment face the challenge of navigating an escalating market, an increased product base, and a more aware and empowered consumer. Gone are the days when leadership was a simple figurehead position, a removed presence at the pinnacle of a large company. Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and director of Reliance Industries limited, said: “The organizational architecture is really that a centipede walks on a hundred legs and one or two don’t count. So if I lose one or two legs, the process will go on, the organization will go on, the growth will go on.” An organization to day is like a centipede; it takes many small parts of the big wheel to make the machine turn. A leader in the new world must be the brain of the organism, providing direction, focus, and clarity to followers. Peter Drucker has stated that even when ‘the right things are being done’ in a company, they are pointless if the focus and assumptions of the leadership are incorrect. He gives the example of General motors (GM). For half a century, GM was one of the most successful automobile companies in the world. It subscribed to the theory that consumers would constantly upgrade their current vehicles for a new and improved model; and that by targeting specific income brackets, it could predict what kinds of cars to mass-produce. In the 1970s, as customers became more sophisticated, this theory collapsed – yet GM continued to market its vehicles to consumers according to their income. By the 1980s, GM’s inability to adapt to shifting consumer demands saw its market share and profit margins dwindle.
“Leadership” is an elusive term. There is no single definition of the qualities a great leader should possess. A great leader is the equivalent of a hiker’s compass. The hiker on his own may be a gifted athlete, but without the aid of navigation, he is sure to get lost. A leader guides and motivates others to follow a path that in her mind is clearly defined. She is able to generate a climate of honesty, trust, and accountability. This positive climate of cooperation, which is essential for a company to succeed in the global environment, is often referred to as the “corporate culture” of an organization…
…Jack Welch said, “Boundaryless is the language, the behavior definer, the culture, the soul of a true global enterprise. It ignores geography, borders, accents, currencies and unites people of all cultures.” This “boundaryless” nature of the world is having the greatest impact on global leadership today. With the boundaries diminishing between countries, companies, and cultures, leaders must have the ability to adapt to a whole range of new cultures, customs, and practices. “According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the number of African, Asian, Native, and Hispanic Americans represented just 7.6% of the workplace 50 years ago. In 2000, that number more than doubled to 16%, and, according to the Hudson Institute, is projected to surpass 30% by 2020.” This figure demonstrates the meshing of cultures within North America, yet this phenomenon is taking place the world over…
On Global Vision and Strategy
…Inspiring a shared vision in a world filled with so many differences isn’t an easy task. Leaders have to make sure they know and understand what motivates people in all the different locations where they operate. “I consider one of the attributes of a world-class leader is helping the organization change,” says Bill Vincek of MGI PHARMA.“ It’s difficult to get people to accept change, get management to be an example of change, and move forward. If you want to move toward being a number one company, people need to share the vision and then develop a shared strategy. “
When developing a global vision and strategy, the vision should be concrete and apply across the enterprise. The strategy and its implementation should be flexible enough to adapt to different parts of the world.
Dr. Siow Choon Neo of FedEx Asia Pacific says, "You need the ability to articulate a shared vision, aligned to the business goals, and adjusted towards communicating with different cultures.” Culture isn’t the only implication to keep in mind. Context is necessary when laying out a shared vision and strategy, to help others understand what you and your organization are trying to accomplish. The educational and experience levels of people in different countries can also vary greatly…
On Developing Leaders
There are two types of leaders. The first waits for talented people to show up and then recruits those people onto his or her team. The second type develops talent by nurturing potential leaders, guiding their growth by broadening their experiences, and mentoring and coaching them along the way. According to David J. Gee, “There will always be a shortage of the right kind of people. You need the ability to create a supply of talented people who can eventually grow into your role.” Are you a user of talent or a developer of talent? Navi Radjou believes the era of globalization will redefine leadership into a more diffused, collective leadership. “We will have increasing amounts of stakeholders involved and influencing business decisions. Leadership will be more participatory, collective and democratic.”
World-class leaders continuously identify and develop their stars. They are more interested in growing leaders than they are in increasing the number of people following them. Whether you are leading domestically or globally, Tom Rath from Gallup advises, “Make sure your emerging and existing leaders have a real opportunity to learn every day. Allow them time to learn about the latest development and research.”
On Strategic Marketing
Jair Ribeiro, chief executive officer of Braxis IT Services in Brazil, advises: “Cultural and customer considerations, as well as the scope and size of the market, are more complex. Determining a strategy of how and where to grow involves having fewer boundaries.”
Global business acumen includes being well informed about strategic marketing. As Jair suggests, it requires a much more complex understanding of markets, including how different cultures are motivated to buy. Who you sell to, what your product looks like, when you sell (seasonally), where you sell (bricks-and-mortar, online), why people are motivated to buy, class and cultural variances, people’s interests and attitudes, and the maturity of the markets are just some of the issues you face when marketing globally. It really comes down to understanding differences among different people and customizing your approach. John Pepper, of Procter & Gamble, shared his experience of seeing short-term sales of a product fall significantly in China following a change in color on the packaging. “What we had missed.” John said, “was that in China the consumer really knows what to buy by the color coding. We had the view that it was much better to have just one color for the whole brand, which in many ways is true. One color crates a block appearance on the shelf. We went to great lengths on the packaging to describe the change, but people weren’t reading the words…”
Bulletin
On The Global Leadership Paradigm…
