Chapter 30
Growing Tomorrow’s Leaders for the Worlds of 2020
Lawrena Colombo and John Verderese
In This Chapter
- Leadership development programs are most effective when linked with an organization’s strategy and its long-term scenario planning.
- There are opportunities at various stages of a person’s career to develop global leadership competencies.
- Innovative leadership development programs such as global immersion are most successful when they have a high degree of executive advocacy and involvement.
- The leaders of tomorrow must be prepared to operate in a global, interconnected world and must be comfortable reinventing themselves, given the pace of change.
Thousands of applications have already been developed for the iPhone. That’s a startling number, considering that this device did not exist until 2007. In today’s ever-changing and evolving world, some might consider the thought of developing global business leaders to be like trying to create an application for the next revolutionary generation of mobile handheld devices. How can we prepare for what we do not know? After all, 20 years ago, when today’s global leaders may have been in their formative years, had anyone really predicted the rise of globalism, the flattening of the world, and the speed at which information traverses the globe?
All this change calls into question whether the traditional leadership model of the global organization still even applies. Are global leaders really those who have been groomed over the long term, or are they simply those who have demonstrated the adaptability and tenacity to thrive to become the accidental leaders who succeed today, and, if so, is that individual success sustainable? Twenty years ago, leaders may have been prepared for a multinational world, but they must now function in a globally interconnected world.
So, with this in mind, can we really prepare individuals in our organizations to be global leaders, and if so, at what point, and how good of a crystal ball do we all need? Though some organizations may be content to think they are aptly developing their future global leaders, they may have forgotten to ask a very important question: “Preparing them for what?” To answer this question, it is important to do some scenario planning for what the future may look like, to prepare individuals for the kinds of scenarios that we may face, and at the same time, to give them the skills and experiences they will need to adapt to the ever-changing world.
At the end of 2007, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) published its first report on the future of people management. It predicted that the growing talent crisis, demographic shifts, advances in technology, and rise of sustainability issues on the corporate agenda would dramatically change organizational models and the way in which companies manage their operations and people. The report, Managing Tomorrow’s People: The Future of Work to 2020, produced with the help of the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization at the Said Business School, Oxford, explored three scenarios or worlds which might coexist in 2020.
The Three Worlds of 2020
According to these three scenarios, in 2020, there might be three worlds—orange, green, and blue (figure 30-1). In the Orange World, businesses are fragmented, and so-called companies are usually small, lean, nimble, and reliant on an extensive network of suppliers. They have multiple clients and contracts and access a globally diverse workforce called team workers on a supply-and-demand basis. Communication networks are enabled by continual technological advancement and innovation. Loose collaborative cloud networks come and go, project by project. Employees in the Orange World are technology savvy and networked to communities of other employees with similar skills.
In the Green World, companies have a powerful social conscience intrinsic to the brand and a green, or environmental, sense of responsibility. The focus is on sustainable and ethical business practices and a strong drive to minimize and mitigate risky practices. This responsibility ethos is enforced by governments and regulators and is more prevalen t in certain industries such as energy, automobiles, and financial services. Green World employees engage with the company brand because it reflects their own values. They are recognized for good corporate behavior, not just business results.
In 2020, Blue World companies embody big company capitalism, and individual preferences override a belief in collective social responsibility. Blue World companies have invested in size, technology, the talent pipeline, strong leadership (as traditionally defined), and sophisticated metrics. They have highly energized and committed workforces that are well trained, skilled, and operate globally. Work may be pressurized and fast-paced, but employees enjoy a wide range of benefits that help them sustain busy lifestyles and lock them into the organization. For those who perform well, the rewards can be very high.
How close any or all three of these scenarios are to reality will only be known in 2020, but as far as they are related to growing global leaders, the point is clear. The leader of tomorrow needs to grow for the world not as we know it today but for what we think it will be in the future. Yet at the same time, even with the best succession planning, some leaders will be thrust upon the scene who will need to be grown rapidly for the world we live in today. The world, our organizations, and our workforces are changing so rapidly that when it comes to developing global leaders, we need a collective mindset that it’s never too early and never too late.
The Modalities of Leadership Development
Regardless of which color world a leader is destined for, traditional methods of leadership development can only go so far. They may develop good managers, but they will not develop visionary individuals who inspire others, collaborate across organizational and continental boundaries, and produce the kinds of individuals who can lead in a dynamic global world. Though a 2020 leader may thrive in his or her own colored world, he or she must also be able to work across organizational boundaries and operate in the other worlds.
Traditional leadership development includes such modalities as assessments, rotational assignments, attendance at leading business school programs, and traditional coaching and mentoring. But those leaders who seek to thrive in the Orange, Green, and Blue worlds are likely to require more of a special type of experience, a flagship immersion program, which traditionally has lagged the others (figure 30-2).
A flagship immersion program creates an experience in which selected individuals participate in a program considered in some ways as a rite of passage for high-potential or pivotal talent—see the sidebar. Though there is a long-held belief that adults learn best in a safe, low-risk environment such as a classroom or even a retreat, an interactive and truly global experience sidesteps this thinking and exposes the leader to settings and situations that introduce a healthy level of risk, adventure, and excitement.
Leveraging Global Experience into Trust-Based Relationships
International immersion is a key common element of both programs described in the sidebar, Genesis Park and Project Ulysses. As global leaders increasingly interact in the Blue, Orange, and Green worlds, global experiences will become an increasingly necessary core competency. “It doesn’t necessarily matter where someone has had a global immersion experience or whether it happens to have been in the same place as someone with whom you are developing a global relationship,” says PwC’s global clients and markets leader, Don Almeida. “The fact that someone has had had a game-changing global experience becomes a shared rite of passage and a common bond with other global leaders, whether they be clients, colleagues, or other stakeholders such as attorneys, investment bankers, and the like.
It’s Never Too Early, Never Too Late
PricewaterhouseCoopers believes that when it comes to developing global leaders, “it’s never too early, never too late,” and as such includes in its suite of leadership development opportunities two unique programs, Genesis Park and Project Ulysses.
Genesis Park brings together high-performing staff members from around the world who have demonstrated clear leadership potential and immerses them in an intense 16-week residency program, during which participants are freed of all client obligations. Genesis Park participants have demonstrated a willingness, eagerness, and ability to grasp and analyze business concepts, explore market and industry trends, approach challenges creatively, and effectively articulate their thinking. “The Park,” as it has come to be known, is designed to take a globally diverse group of promising leaders (who have not yet reached the partner/principal level) and develop them into business leaders capable of creating differentiating value for PwC and its clients.
Genesis Park teams are often called upon by PwC to research complex business issues and make recommendations to leadership. “I am constantly amazed by the depth and breadth of problem solving these teams have brought to the many leading-edge business issues I have put on their plate,” says PwC’s global advisory leader, Juan Pujadas. “But even more amazing is how quickly, as a result of a structured onboarding experience, a group of individuals who do not know each other become a cohesive, high-performing team and, rather than trying to set their cultural, language, and ethnic backgrounds aside, they instead leverage their differences to bring unique perspectives that solve a problem better—and faster.”
Candidates for participation in Genesis Park require sponsorship, most typically by a senior partner from the candidate’s home office, and there is an active alumni network that helps maintain ongoing professional and personal contact among Genesis Park graduates—and because the participants are from all over the world, a robust global network flourishes. Upon returning to their home firm, Genesis Park graduates are ready to take on important new roles for clients, manage teams, and develop new business opportunities. Their experience at Genesis Park is often viewed by others as a metamorphosis, and these individuals quickly get a reputation for thinking and doing “beyond their tenure.”
Achieving a career milestone of being admitted as a partner or principal at PwC is not considered an end state bur rather a platform for continuing growth. Following the tenet that “it’s never too late,” individuals at the partner level are selected to attend the Ulysses Program. Ulysses is designed to build a global network of responsible leaders who are committed to developing quality, trust-based relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders; leaders who understand the responsibilities of their partnership and their responsibilities as individuals to integrate stakeholder collaboration into the role of high-performing business to create sustainable success for communities and markets across the world. The program comprises five learning modules and is distinguished by an eight-week project assignment where multicultural teams work in developing countries in collaboration with social and nongovernmental organizations.
An example of a project was for Aravind Eye Care, based in India. Aravind is the world’s largest provider of eye care services, performing 250,000 surgeries a year. The long-term aim of the organization is to perform 1 million surgeries a year by 2015. To help them achieve this goal, the Ulysses team was asked to design a strategic road map for Aravind so it would be able to form partnerships with other eye care organizations in the poor regions of India. Implicit in this task was the creation of marketing strategies for identifying partners and the development of monitoring processes to evaluate any new operations.
Ulysses was designed as an innovative response to the core challenges that businesses face in an increasingly interconnected global world, and thus it seeks to empower global leaders to achieve the following:
- Trust-based stakeholder relationships: to build a global network of leaders who understand the importance of values in developing trust-based relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders and who can create a sustainable brand that is differentiated by the quality of those relationships with clients, colleagues, and the broader international community.
- Sustainable business practices: to help developing global leaders understand the changing role of business in influencing the economic, political, social, and environmental well-being of communities and markets around the globe, and the responsibility of organizations and individuals to work in collaboration with a broader group of stakeholders to achieve sustainable success through responsible worldwide business practices.
- Responsible leadership model: to develop a model of leadership that will enable the next generation to lead responsibly within a globally networked world, and to position this responsible leadership model as a foundational organizational element.
Rich Baird, a former PwC global human capital leader and a Ulysses champion, says that “Ulysses builds responsible leaders with heightened self-awareness, cross-cultural teaming, and by providing opportunities to make the world a better place. The program is truly unique and enhances the participants’ understanding of their place in a global society and the importance of building networks with similarly focused, visionary leaders.”
Source: Interviews with authors.
However for United States–based leaders, immersion in other traditional Western locations will increasingly become less relevant and career defining as the truly game-changing experiences will stretch individuals in terms of learning non-Western culture, customs, and language” (from interview with authors).
Keys to Success
These are just two distinctive offerings in the range of traditional leadership development programs and opportunities at PwC, but “what makes them unique and sustainable,” says Karen VanderLinde, PwC’s global leader of people and change, “is that they are aligned with PwC’s strategy and have executive commitment that not only survives but thrives with executive leadership changes. Genesis Park is a frequent stop for partners who assume significant leadership roles in our firm, and once they see the talent at their disposal, they are quick to put one of their teams to work on a challenging issue” (from interview with authors).
Executive commitment isn’t measured by investment dollars alone, but also, and more important, by the amount of executive time dedicated and the extent to which an organization’s top executives have the feel of these programs. The more nontraditional the program, the more chance naysayers in the organization, often those charged with managing the bottom line, may try to cancel them, particularly in lean times. It is important to know that the more innovative and game-changing a leadership program is, the more advocacy and active involvement it needs from senior executives. Leaders at the top must encourage those at lower levels to attend and sponsor, and they themselves must lead by example by allowing their own protégées to attend these types of programs.
So whether an organization is headed for the Blue, Green, or Orange world—or some other color still to be determined—it is important to continually invest in leadership development and make it as innovative and game-changing for the organization and individual as possible. And remember, when it comes to developing highly talented people into global leaders, it’s never too early and never too late.
Further Reading
Marc Effron, Shelli Greenslade, and Michelle Salob, “Growing Great Leaders: Does It Really Mat
ter?” Human Resource Planning Journal, vol. 28, no. 3 (September 2005): 18–23. Thomas Maak and Nicola M. Pless, Responsible Leadership. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Mark E. Mendenhall, Gunter K. Stahl, and Torsten M. Kuhlmann, eds., Developing Global Business Leaders: Policies, Processes and Innovation. Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 2000.
About the Authors
Lawrena Colombo is a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ advisory people and change practice and specializes in change management, communications, and learning and development. She consults with many global clients to optimize their business results by aligning their people strategies. Her career has included working and living abroad as well as having global human capital responsibility for a practice of more than 10,000 professionals. She is a member of ASTD, the Society for Human Resources Management, and the Human Capital Institute. She formerly served as the U.S. and global human capital leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ tax practice.
John Verderese is a managing director in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ advisory people and change practice. He specializes in talent management, including leadership development, talent assessment, diversity and inclusion, and flexible workplace arrangements. He formerly served as PricewaterhouseCoopers’ human capital leader for its U.S. advisory practice. In this role, he was responsible for all aspects of talent management, development, compensation, and benefits for advisory partners and principals and advisory professional staff in the United States. During his tenure in that role, PricewaterhouseCoopers received numerous accolades, including being named to Fortune’s 100 best companies to work for and Diversity Inc.’s top 10. He is a member of the Society for Human Resources Management.