cannot seem to grow local leaders fast enough to handle the complexity of this progression. For that matter, there is no global leader who has experienced a similar situation anywhere else in the world. This makes it all the more crucial to have local leaders in positions where they can influence organizational strategies for their unique market.
Huang's 15 years of experience and the company's ability to retain him for that long are very rare in China. He is a source of knowledge about China's market and how the industry works that many organizations would pay large sums of money to recruit. The interview turns to growth projections and the company's big bet on China to determine its fortune. “How did the organization leverage your knowledge about China when you were in Germany? There is a strong hub of global business unit leadership there and a lot of collaboration with China. How did you contribute to strategy decisions and cross-pollination while they had you so close?”
Huang disengages, shifting back in his seat again to look out the window. He is quiet for a length of time and then refocuses and answers very slowly, “They never invited me to any meetings. They never asked me one question.”
Common Leadership Tasks
Ingrid (promotion postponed), Alan (air filters), and Huang (failed assignment), are each high-potential future leaders who have held important roles in vital markets. Their performance is critical to their multinational employers, but they are struggling. What could each of them do to have a better chance of success? And what could their organizations do to make success more likely?
Leaders in organizations everywhere must find ways to grow their businesses, to make them more efficient, and to develop employee capabilities. They need to leverage the best talent, bridge differences, run teams, engage diverse employees, integrate mergers and acquisitions, innovate to create new hit products or services for customers, and make difficult ethical choices on behalf of the organization.
Given the differences in culture, languages, time zones, and institutions inherent in global business settings, these common leadership tasks become significantly more complex and demanding. Leaders at all levels must work within matrix organizations that seek to balance the interests of business lines, functions, and geographical regions. They are also likely to have less direct authority, less accurate information, broader responsibilities, and significantly more stakeholders.12
Most writings on leadership focus on competencies – that is, individual skills or characteristics that allegedly produce better results. Leading Across New Borders focuses primarily on specific tasks that leaders like Ingrid, Alan, and Huang must accomplish. It answers the question: What does each of them need to do in order to succeed in cross-border contexts, with many stakeholders and little or no “command and control” authority?
Global leaders have to carry out their tasks within several contexts: self and other, team, and organization. Subsequent chapters will examine standard best practices for each task, point to the limitations of current leadership models as the world changes, and offer new ideas and approaches. Each leadership task – displayed in Table 1.2 – must be handled with an awareness of how we can alter pre-existing paradigms to reflect new realities.
TABLE 1.2 Global Leadership Tasks
About This Book
Close examination of these key tasks provides a useful road map for learning to lead in a global context. Although there is still value in learning about protocol or general paradigms for cultural awareness, this book goes beyond these familiar nostrums. Recommendations provided in each of the chapters to follow are based on contemporary examples and wisdom gleaned from practical, hard-working people in real companies. We will introduce leaders from many industries and locations, the work of scholars from various countries, and fresh data from our own proprietary tools.
Aperian Global, the authors' firm, delivers consulting services and learning programs every year to in excess of 15,000 people in more than 15 languages and 60 countries. We have served corporate audiences in many of the world's largest companies (including one-third of the Fortune 100) and in all major industries for over 25 years. This has provided us with deep knowledge and experience in addressing global business issues pragmatically, without getting mired or lost in complexity. Readers will have temporary access to the GlobeSmart ProfileSM, a personal inventory backed by strong research that will allow them to quickly assess their own cultural patterns based on five dimensions of culture and to compare themselves with others. We will introduce aggregate data gathered from recent users of this profile, a part of the GlobeSmart® web tool that has had over 800,000 registered users to date. In later chapters, we will also provide revealing new data gleaned from analyzing thousands of responses to two other proprietary surveys, the GlobeSmart Teaming AssessmentSM, and the GlobeSmart Innovation AssessmentSM.
An Invitation
Successful global leaders take on their jobs with eyes wide open to the rich variety of markets and employees that exist around the world, blending their hard-won prior experience with fresh insights and a willingness to experiment with new approaches. They are constantly alert to ways in which the world is changing, as their daily choices have crucial strategic and bottom-line implications.
Along their respective paths, people in leadership roles are also compelled to make tough ethical choices that push them to widen their frame of reference and to consider others' (often fervently held) ethical perspectives. They may even begin to include previously invisible participants in their considerations, such as the migrant farm workers who spray pesticides on crops in the field and drink water from the pump nearby, or the animals that live there as well. As Mother Teresa once stated, “The problem with the world is that we draw the circle of our family too small.”
Leading Across New Borders is an invitation to take a journey shared by people in an ever-increasing number of professions from all parts of the globe. The path is different for everyone; yet there are common dilemmas that leaders face as the center shifts and their personal circles widen. Some may be just embarking on this journey, while others are likely to be well on their way. Readers at every level of experience will find this book to be a game-changing guide to the rugged terrain ahead.
CHAPTER 2
GLOBAL TALENT: BEYOND OUTSOURCING
Rethinking Talent
Many organizations have realized that if they still hope to be relevant in the near future, they need to radically adjust their thinking about where they are located, how they do business, what they produce, and who will lead them. While the need for change is glaringly apparent, the path to success in this new global playing field is often elusive. The transformation to a global talent management model is a high-stakes endeavor fraught with difficulties and well-intentioned strategies gone awry. As the world shifts, some approaches to talent will produce far greater success than others.
Allergic to Outsourcing
Sohail is a mid-level manager for a global pharmaceutical conglomerate that has invested millions in its sprawling Hyderabad campus and has aggressive hiring plans to fill the site with Indian talent. The break room where we meet resembles a Moroccan riad, an open courtyard in the center of the white building with light pouring in from a glass roof. Well-spoken, whip-smart, and sharply dressed, Sohail leans forward with his elbows on his knees and uses his hands to talk.
“I'm actually part of a new team in Hyderabad. We used to be in a BPO [business process outsourcing] relationship with the company, but now we are part of an integrated global
“The Global Leader,” Corporate Leadership Council (CLC) Human Resources, Corporate Executive Board, Executive Briefing, February 2012.
