Shilputsi Consultants

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All set to compete with global talent? : Financial Express - January 28, 2006

It is not enough to be better; to take incoming global talent head on, local managers should try to be different

Purvi Sheth

It is no longer just the threat of one’s job being ‘Bangalored’ that keeps people awake at night in parts of the world. A managerial population this side of the Atlantic, is beginning to wonder how to face the challenge and competition of emergent foreign talent showing keen interest to work in newly rising economies. People of diverse origin are ready to bring international education and global management expertise to the local experience pool.

Seeking talent outside home ground

A talent shortage is seen in many sectors of emerging economies, and will be felt acutely at companies in newer industries where there is no previous experience. Corporates feel the need to invite the sharpest minds from across borders, to stay ahead of the curve, apply knowledge of other markets and remain innovative in the corporate landscape. Organisations of the post-modern economy are shoring up efforts to attract foreign talent, the access of which is now easy and also welcomed by global managers!

Global competitiveness requires well-defined systems and processes that become templates for future growth. Whether it is in areas of service operations, manufacturing high-tech products or management leadership, companies are scouting talent internationally.

India and the incoming manager

With its exciting markets, India enamours, entices and engages economic drivers from around the world. In time, there will be a larger influx of talented immigrants. As salaries get calibrated at international standards, professionals abroad view it as an attractive destination from an income lifestyle perspective. Those with families and strong connections here are even more eager to return to their home country to provide vital skills and grow new industries.

The local Indian workforce is watching foreign competitors move onto its turf and take the lead as the character of work itself has changed. Leadership seats are up for grabs—that’s frightening as well as exciting! Someone once wrote to Thomas Jefferson, “These are times that a genius would wish to live—great necessity, calls forth great leadership.”

It’s important to remind ourselves that it’s not a matter of being just better, but of being different. Global talent is not one superior homogeneous group and can be brought in for various purposes:

• Level: Levels of managerial expertise and exposure, like leadership (CEOs), strategic (heads of functions) or operational (second and third tier supervisors) roles.

• Cost: The view taken is not just of financial and time investment, but the price paid for knowledge, skills and capabilities obtained from global managers;

• Experience: The experience of special and diverse markets, products, scale and volume, technologies and cultures;

The common denominator of “international talent” is new habits and ways of thinking to uncover solutions to perennial problems. Also, the seemingly natural ability to interpret unfamiliar terrains and ambiguous turfs deems the outsider culturally and management-wise intelligent.

Building world-class leadership capabilities isn’t easy; here are some ways of developing them to rival an international workforce:

• Recognise yourself: Remember the moments when you most deeply and intensely became active and alive and a voice inside you said, “this is the real me”! What experiences were vital to your development? What role has failure played in your life? What were the turning points in your life?

• Build on strengths: Minimise weaknesses; don’t shy away from retraining and additional experiential learning. Hone your competitive advantage to make your experience fuller.

• Recognise new surroundings/people: A stranger in a strange land sees more and sees fresh. Growth requires curiosity to experience difference and synchrony. Immerse yourself in new environs and others’ learning. Broaden your view and be open to embrace another. Believe in the power of diversity of ideas.

• Trust your instinct: Seek simplicity, then dis-trust it. Rely on intuitive skills as much as analytical talents. Sometimes, give up a mechanistic view and operate from creative and moral powers to reinvent yourself. Abraham Maslow advises, “Listen to the impulse voice.”

• Be adventurous: Strike hard and try everything. Warren Bennis says, “The difference between desire and drive is the difference between expressing yourself and proving yourself.” Break through cynicism and find a new meaning to your job.

• Work in adhocracy and chaos: Learn through surprises and adversity. “Everywhere you trip is where the treasure lies.” Be comfortable in uncertainties, mysteries and doubts yet reaching after fact and reason.

• Get people by your side: Be tough, be fair! Up to a point you can lead out of fear and intimidation; but that’s obedience with a residue of resentment. Gloria Steinem said once, “What makes you successful is that you can phrase things in a way that is inspirational, that makes coalitions possible.”

• Let the organisation help: Warren Bennis says, “The organisation is the primary social, economic and political form and business is a dominant cultural force. Organisations in general, and businesses in particular, must deal with sweeping profound alterations in society.” Don’t criticise but leverage your company’s offers of opportunity; identify how it can help you grow.

• Keep learning and move steadily with the future: The future is not a continuation of the past; don’t stumble backwards into the future. In the words of Eric Hoffer, “In times of drastic change, the learners inherit the future. The learned find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”

The New York Times once talked about the Generation of Ruthless Management. To effectively compete, it is essential to develop the ability to grasp and seize opportunities as they present themselves.

However, it is ultimately talent rather than hierarchical positioning that will bring leadership roles to people. Leaders should find ways of growing and building advantages rather than just eliminating disadvantages. In the words of Gary Hammel, “Winners will be ultimately those with the ability to invent fundamentally new games.”

—The author is vice-president, Shilputsi Consultants, India/USA