ADAPTATION AND RIGOUR: INDIA'S BIGGEST PLUSSES?
A friend, who, like many other global executives, straddles multiple worlds simultaneously, has this interesting take on his decision style. When he is in Bangalore, he says, as he drives in to work he's already made some pretty big decisions – should he risk Hosur Road, should he squeeze past the truck through the left while an auto ahead of him is attempting to go right, is there enough clearance to go between the two buses ahead locked around the turn and so on. By the time he reaches work he's already made decisions which have quite literally saved his skin by centimetres. In contrast though, when he's driving to work in Northern California, he gets into the car and realises he's reached his destination only as he reaches the parking lot – ready to start taking significant decisions to earn his keep.
While (mildly) exaggerated and clearly a sweeping statement, this points to an unconscious competence that many Indian decision makers evolve- dealing with extreme ambiguity, a skill that figures on the radar screen of any self-respecting competency model for a global company. Given the relative institutional vacuum and the tangled web of rules and regulations that business leaders in India have had to work in for decades, studies have also shown that Indian managers themselves believe that they have a stronger capacity to adapt and to deal with difficult environments than leaders from other countries, While the environment is far more business friendly now, this earlier learning-by-doing perhaps serves to explain in small part why in the current wave of globalisation a fairly significant number of Indian companies are punching above their weight, besides the growing demand for Indian leadership talent elsewhere in the world.
Our work on leadership development has shown that Indian companies seem to do consistently well on execution. We have noticed this especially in companies that have a large number of engineers at leadership levels. This is possibly because strong technical expertise, often combined with management education have translated into strong project m a n a g e m e n t
skills, including the focus on processes and rigour in project management.
GOING GLOBAL OR GOING REGIONAL, FLEXIBILITY IS KEY
It is not wise to assume that in the current phase of globalisation, most, if not all, of the globalising Indian companies work on the flat world model of one global organisation rather than the traditional multinationals which work as multiple local organisations. As a number of studies have suggested, Indian multinationals have grown in a number of ways and in different phases. For example, Pankaj Ghemawat has suggested that companies may actually need to build their abilities to go regional. Amongst other examples, he has highlighted the strong regional strategies of companies like TCS and Cognizant, and these companies stand out because he himself admits that software companies are the ones most likely to be "born global". Again, as Tarun Khanna has pointed out, companies like M&M first introduced the Scorpio in other emerging markets like Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, and later in the Middle East and South America, as these countries were similar to India in a number of r e s p e c t s .
The company is now distributing the car in the U.S., thereby going global, region by region. According to Ravi Ramamurti and his team, companies like Bharat Forge, Tata Steel and Hindalco have been able to become successful "global consolidators". A number of companies, especially in the pharmaceutical sector have shown both increased mergers and acquisition activity abroad. Some like GVK Biosciences and Nicholas Piramal have become low-cost partners for international clinical trials and research; others like Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and Ranbaxy are now strong competitors in many countries.
However, we believe that, regardless of whether one follows the world is flat dictum or the world is regional mantra, the situations and competencies required from leaders as a result will be similar. Research shows that a blend of global, regional and national strategies work in various permutations, but in order to take advantage of a wide variety of strategies, companies need to able to build a flexible leadership pool. Usually this would require great change management, strategic, operational, restructuring as well as crisis management skills. To expect one leader to have all these skills would be unrealistic and unsustainable. Therefore, a company will need to build a pool of leaders, each possessing these skills in varying degrees, which can handle these situations as they occur simultaneously across countries and across functions.
GETTING THINGS DONE: THE PEOPLE FACTOR
However, all leaders need to develop their ability to manage talent across borders. At a minimum, Indian companies need to stress upon the following abilities as a part of building their talent leadership capabilities:
Valuing diversity including respecting diversity in various forms, including cultural self-awareness, social, gender and most importantly, thinking diversity
Managing and influencing laterally, working collaboratively across silos and through building networks and alliances
Building the global mindset – understanding trends and patterns of global business and taking a problem solving approach to making decisions that reflect both local and global priorities
Leading virtually by developing a level of interpersonal effectiveness to not just transact but communicate and inspire in a world that is no longer face-toface. Building relationships that go beyond the transaction and build, maintain and leverage networks
A friend, who, like many other global executives, straddles multiple worlds simultaneously, has this interesting take on his decision style. When he is in Bangalore, he says, as he drives in to work he's already made some pretty big decisions – should he risk Hosur Road, should he squeeze past the truck through the left while an auto ahead of him is attempting to go right, is there enough clearance to go between the two buses ahead locked around the turn and so on. By the time he reaches work he's already made decisions which have quite literally saved his skin by centimetres. In contrast though, when he's driving to work in Northern California, he gets into the car and realises he's reached his destination only as he reaches the parking lot – ready to start taking significant decisions to earn his keep.
While (mildly) exaggerated and clearly a sweeping statement, this points to an unconscious competence that many Indian decision makers evolve- dealing with extreme ambiguity, a skill that figures on the radar screen of any self-respecting competency model for a global company. Given the relative institutional vacuum and the tangled web of rules and regulations that business leaders in India have had to work in for decades, studies have also shown that Indian managers themselves believe that they have a stronger capacity to adapt and to deal with difficult environments than leaders from other countries, While the environment is far more business friendly now, this earlier learning-by-doing perhaps serves to explain in small part why in the current wave of globalisation a fairly significant number of Indian companies are punching above their weight, besides the growing demand for Indian leadership talent elsewhere in the world.
Our work on leadership development has shown that Indian companies seem to do consistently well on execution. We have noticed this especially in companies that have a large number of engineers at leadership levels. This is possibly because strong technical expertise, often combined with management education have translated into strong project m a n a g e m e n t
skills, including the focus on processes and rigour in project management.
GOING GLOBAL OR GOING REGIONAL, FLEXIBILITY IS KEY
It is not wise to assume that in the current phase of globalisation, most, if not all, of the globalising Indian companies work on the flat world model of one global organisation rather than the traditional multinationals which work as multiple local organisations. As a number of studies have suggested, Indian multinationals have grown in a number of ways and in different phases. For example, Pankaj Ghemawat has suggested that companies may actually need to build their abilities to go regional. Amongst other examples, he has highlighted the strong regional strategies of companies like TCS and Cognizant, and these companies stand out because he himself admits that software companies are the ones most likely to be "born global". Again, as Tarun Khanna has pointed out, companies like M&M first introduced the Scorpio in other emerging markets like Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, and later in the Middle East and South America, as these countries were similar to India in a number of r e s p e c t s .
The company is now distributing the car in the U.S., thereby going global, region by region. According to Ravi Ramamurti and his team, companies like Bharat Forge, Tata Steel and Hindalco have been able to become successful "global consolidators". A number of companies, especially in the pharmaceutical sector have shown both increased mergers and acquisition activity abroad. Some like GVK Biosciences and Nicholas Piramal have become low-cost partners for international clinical trials and research; others like Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and Ranbaxy are now strong competitors in many countries.
However, we believe that, regardless of whether one follows the world is flat dictum or the world is regional mantra, the situations and competencies required from leaders as a result will be similar. Research shows that a blend of global, regional and national strategies work in various permutations, but in order to take advantage of a wide variety of strategies, companies need to able to build a flexible leadership pool. Usually this would require great change management, strategic, operational, restructuring as well as crisis management skills. To expect one leader to have all these skills would be unrealistic and unsustainable. Therefore, a company will need to build a pool of leaders, each possessing these skills in varying degrees, which can handle these situations as they occur simultaneously across countries and across functions.
GETTING THINGS DONE: THE PEOPLE FACTOR
However, all leaders need to develop their ability to manage talent across borders. At a minimum, Indian companies need to stress upon the following abilities as a part of building their talent leadership capabilities:
Valuing diversity including respecting diversity in various forms, including cultural self-awareness, social, gender and most importantly, thinking diversity
Managing and influencing laterally, working collaboratively across silos and through building networks and alliances
Building the global mindset – understanding trends and patterns of global business and taking a problem solving approach to making decisions that reflect both local and global priorities
Leading virtually by developing a level of interpersonal effectiveness to not just transact but communicate and inspire in a world that is no longer face-toface. Building relationships that go beyond the transaction and build, maintain and leverage networks
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