In today's interconnected world, creating a genuinely global leadership team is becoming increasingly integral for businesses with a broad outlook and ambitions to expand into new geographies and emerging markets.
Criticaleye’s latest Asia Leadership Retreat, held in Singapore in association with
Accenture, hosted leaders from across the region to discuss where companies are seeking to invest, innovate and drive opportunities for growth. There was a particular focus on the nuances involved in creating a global leadership mindset.
Margaret Rumpf, Established Pharma Global Commercial Head, GSK explained: “If you're going to build a global team, you need to understand each other and align behind a set of principles and values that you want to operate by and create an organisational culture.”
For an international business, it makes sense to have the widest access to skills and insights to deliver high performance. She continued: “As a team, we recognise how important it is to have the right talent in critical roles. As a result, we’ve created a people strategy alongside our business strategy. Collectively, we've grabbed it and taken ownership of it. Everybody's accountable for this, not just HR.”
Hai Meng Tan, President of Animal Nutrition & Health for APAC at Kemin Industries, said: “One of the advantages of having a global leadership team is the diversity of views. I believe that this adds to the quality of decision-making and, more importantly, by knowing the market well it gives a company an advantage in terms of the market speed and response.”
A sense of shared mission extending across borders is ultimately what makes for a successful global business, combined with paying close attention to local, national and regional customs.
Pascal De Petrini, former Chair for Asia at Danone, comments: “Unless you have full alignment on the values, mission and purpose of the organisation across your global leadership team, with the right level of balance between different geographies and functions, then it’s not going to work.
“The challenge then is to nurture leaders who can lead and demonstrate behaviours in line with this notion of balance, so it’s a framework that can work for everybody,” he said. “It’s the mindset of the people in the organisation that is going to make a difference.”
For Pascal, addressing the challenges of leadership capabilities and talent shortage is about reframing mindsets: “The experience dimension is important. If global leaders are to perform at a high level, they need exposure to operating in different cultures and in functions outside of their areas of expertise. It’s something that builds incredible capabilities and openness within people."
Speed and Agility
If people are to succeed in their roles, then they need an organisational structure that empowers them. It’s why there continues to be a huge amount of focus on business models which are adaptable and facilitate faster decision-making.
Valentin de Miguel, Senior Managing Director - Strategy & Consulting and Sustainability Services Lead for Growth Markets at Accenture, emphasised the importance of technology in driving transformation: “Total enterprise reinvention is [about] setting new performance frontiers. [It’s] based on the premise that every aspect of every company presents an opportunity for reinvention.”
He explained that the biggest barrier to achieving total enterprise reinvention is cultural readiness. If this is to be overcome, then senior executives need to be comfortable with communicating change, and every member of a company’s Board should be able to understand the impact of technology on business models so that it is a core competency.
A poll conducted at the Retreat asked attendees if they had the right mix of technology and talent to outperform over the next 12 months. Fifty-five percent said they lacked the right balance between the two in their organisations and, when pushed on this with a show of hands, it appeared the people side of the equation remained the most difficult, rather than technology.
Matthew Blagg, CEO of Criticaleye, said: “There is an intense focus on performance improvement at present, where senior leaders are seeking to create the right culture to drive productivity. At the same time, we can expect a continual process of reinvention as organisations seek to improve decision-making by getting closer to customers.
“Of course, given the extra scrutiny on cost structures in an inflationary environment, this also has to be done in a way that makes financial sense.”
There may be myriad complexities for senior executives in the region to navigate, but as Pascal said, fundamentally “it’s the mindset of the people in the organisation that is going to make a difference".
Bridgette Hall, Senior Editor, Criticaleye
Key Poll Stats from the Retreat:
Do you expect to drive fast growth over the next 12 months?
17% -- To a Great Extent
70% -- To Some Extent
9% -- To a Minor Extent
4% -- Not at All
Do you need to radically improve your organisation’s culture?
52% -- Yes
48% -- No
Is the agility and pace demonstrated over the past couple of years sustainable over 2023 and beyond?
70% -- Yes
30% -- No
