As a capstone student in Engineering Management, understanding the elements of l

Question

As a capstone student in Engineering Management, understanding the elements of leadership competency development are essential for pursuing your future aspirations and, more importantly, leading others to their aspirations. Read the article provided (George, 2012). Identify the key message(s) in the article and express your thoughts about the author's assessment of the global environment. How is the assessment helpful to you? Do you find your experience in the global environment aligns with the author's assessment? Do you have a different perspective you would like to share?

Note: Make sure your response statements are supported with evidence and examples.

minimum 300words

Harvard Business ReviewW A New Era for Global Leadership Development by Bill George FEBRUARY 17, 2012 The realities of globalization, with increasing emphasis on emerging markets, present corporate leaders with enormous challenges in developing the leaders required to run global organizations. Too many multinational companies- particularly Japanese, Indian, German, and some American ones- still concentrate vital decisions in the hands of a small group of trusted leaders from their home country. They hire technical specialists, local experts, and country managers from emerging markets but rarely promote them to corporate positions. Instead, they groom future global leaders from the headquarters nation by sending them on overseas appointments. This approach worked relatively well for companies selling standard products in developed markets, but as multinationals transition into truly global organizations relying on emerging markets for growth, it's far from adequate. In order to adapt to local cultures and market needs, companies must shift to decentralized, collaborative decision-making. That requires developing many leaders To address these needs, new approaches for developing global leaders are required: The diversity of top leadership should reflect the diversity of the firm's customers. Global leaders must be effective in aligning employees around the company's mission and values, empowering people to lead, and collaborating horizontally rather than managing vertically. Rather than concentrating on the on the top so leaders, global companies need to develop hundreds, even thousands, of leaders comfortable operating in a variety of cultures.

Explanation / Answer

Leadership is important for any business. With the correct vision of a leader, it is possible to make the business better than it was before and strive towards success. With the advent of technology, the businesses are no longer restricted to selling their services or products at the local level and hence are reached out to other lucrative foreign markets for expansion of the business. With this expansion comes the need to manage the business globally and streamline the operational and corporate efficiencies at different multinational offices. The companies which were multinational, i.e. focusing primarily on the parent market and expanding into foreign markets are now turning into global companies by adopting specialised strategies for each geographical location. Since the consumers in every different region will have a different taste for products and services (nonstandard products) hence it becomes necessary for the company to shape its offerings to suit the needs of their local customers. For this one needs strategic leadership which will allow for aligning the vision & mission of the business with that of local operations and staff. It hence becomes necessary to inculcate the leadership attitude in most of the employees of the firm to enhance their proactive attitude which helps the business prosper using its human resource.

The experience with global scenario does match with that of the author since we can follow up with the examples of various multinational companies which operate in India so as to cater to other needs of Indian customers. Example of the same will be McDonald's who offers different products at different geographical locations allowing for meeting the expectations of the customers. With their leadership attitude inculcated in their employees who exercise the power of taking action whenever necessary instead of waiting for permissions from higher authorities. This will help them to sort out the problems of the customers as soon as they can instead of making them wait which can be annoying to the customer and harmful to the brand value of the company.

Expansion of companies into untapped foreign markets has become an increasing way of expansion of the company. There are various factors which needed to be tackled to streamline effective operations in that particular geographical region. Effective leadership is important for the business to kick start the operations but making the business profitable is the most important factor for the firm to continue foreign operations. Hence, leadership plays an important role in getting the businesses a fair share in the newly entered market. It can also help to identify new markets where the company can enter for further expansion or to support current operations of the company.

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