As business today operates in an increasingly global context, tomorrow’s leaders must learn to see through the eyes of others – and truly understand their customers and colleagues across borders. The world’s economic center is rapidly shifting towards markets that have “emerged” like China, India and Brazil, and professionals and organizations must adapt.
In LEADING ACROSS NEW BORDERS (Wiley, Sept. 28, 2015), Ernest Gundling, Ph.D., global leadership expert and managing partner at Aperian Global, empowers leaders with the skills they need to conquer the challenges of today’s increasingly complex multinational business environment such as managing inclusively; integrating acquisitions; innovating across borders, and running a matrix team.
Beyond the core competencies, skills and characteristics needed to produce better results, Leading Across New Borders provides first-hand, immediately applicable direction for interaction with worldwide colleagues, allowing you to lead with insight and confidence. The book helps readers to:
- Combine cultural awareness with any professional field of expertise
- Move from outmoded outsourcing models to leveraging global talent
- Position a global matrix team for high performance
- Lead inclusively across multiple aspects of global diversity
- Integrate global mergers or acquisitions
- Innovate across borders
- Make ethical choices for a sustainable future
- Find their own center as a global leader with an eye to past, present, and future
New imperatives like these will help leaders better understand and navigate cultural, market and management differences. And to show how vitally these differences can impact businesses, brands and the ways we manage, the book cites a wide range of cases, including:
- 3M’s Water Filtration Business in China – how a global innovation leader has grown rapidly in a key market by strategically responding to its changing development phases and market needs;
- Daimler-Benz AG’s failed acquisition of Chrysler – how a $39 billion investment and five years of integration efforts crumbled, due largely to the companies’ insufficient advance knowledge of one another’s contrasting national and organizational cultures;
- Unilever and Ethical Standards – how Unilever has partnered with the Rainforest Alliance to certify African farms growing its famous tea brands (including Lipton) based on environmental and social criteria. While the partnership didn’t boost share in all markets, its CSR value was priceless and it provides a model for how two global organizations can partner effectively on a shared mission.
Learning from multinational examples like these, leaders will better navigate emerging organizational structures such as the matrix team, and succeed by more effectively at integrating voices from colleagues around the world to serve diverse stakeholders across geopolitical and cultural borders.
Leading Across New Borders reveals a new leadership paradigm for a globalized world and workforce, showing managers how to adapt amid diverse cultures and economies, crossing borders into new geographies, social realities, and mental models. With this dynamic approach, any leader can achieve their most critical business and organizational goals - from market share, to innovation, to basic human and environmental needs - as the world’s economic center continues to shift.
Additional Information
A Conversation with Paul Shoemaker
Author of Can’t Not Do: The Compelling Social Drive that Changes Our World
Wiley; August 10, 2015
Q. Paul, you write that the world does not lack solutions for tackling social issues, but what is most needed is more human and social capital. What do you mean by that?
A. I think a lot of people think solving our most entrenched social problems is sort of a black hole. We don’t really know how to create great schools or reduce violent crime. But the real truth is there are solutions to almost every challenge. From my 17 years as a social change maker, I know that we have the knowledge about how to solve most social problems (and often have the money too), what we lack most is sustained, committed, persistent human capital; can’t not do people, that put those solutions into action. It’s not easy; if it was, we would have a lot more problems solved by now.
Q. The world is full of worthy causes. It can be overwhelming – even for the most committed people who want and are willing to get involved. How do you overcome that feeling of powerlessness and become motivated?
A. One person can have such a positive impact because of the world we live in today, full of social multipliers and technology that amplify the impact one person can have. So in reality, that person isn’t alone. There are others who can be brought together in a shared cause. It’s also about knowing that there are real solutions already out there and usually enough money; the missing element is the passionate commitment of people —that’s us -- and we don’t have to be a celebrity or crazy rich to make a deep difference. There are lots of examples of people who are neither wealthy nor doing this work full-time. What matters is doing something you care about deeply in your core and that you know can be changed for the better and you are not going to stop until you do it. Every one of us has that urge somewhere within us waiting to be “unleashed.” I ask readers to answer seven questions, as a pathway to help us conquer our fears and powerlessness, and motivate us to find our purpose.
Q. People can be passionate about many things. How do we begin to find our Can’t Not Do? Should it be just one thing?
A. If everyone focused on one cause, they would create a far deeper impact. Too many well-intentioned people jump around from cause to cause and while that may be easier, it doesn’t create much lasting change for the world (or for themselves).
Q. You tell many inspiring stories in the book of individuals who found their Can’t Not Do and turned a passion into action. Are there specific character traits these change leaders share?
A. They have a mindset of determined optimism – you have to believe a problem is solvable and you have to be almost obsessed with making progress; 2) I think most people that have the most impact have found something that really connects to who they are at their core; they are very grounded; 3) they are willing to go through a lot of hard barriers and un-sexy work to make things happen. They’ve got real grit; 4) they are often, or they become, great listeners; and 5) they are humble, genuinely and authentically, humble.
Q. Social media and technology are playing a key role in mobilizing and connecting people to various causes worldwide. How can we use these tools to more effectively tap into the causes we care about?
A. Technology is one of the 3 key social multipliers. These multipliers have changed the “soil” we all do this work in. The potential for change is accelerated and enhanced because technology (and the other two multipliers: connectedness and globalization) amplify the impact of what each person can do on their own. And when that person also learns to be a great “connector,” the network effect really kicks in and they can now have impact-squared. Technology is a vital enabler, not just for commerce in today’s world, but for enabling an accelerated pace of social change and more effective change makers.
Q. 1+1 = 3? How so?
A. It’s not the first time you’ve heard about the network effect, but this is about applying that concept to the world of social change. The point of the chapter on being a connector is that you can learn how to do it, you can get much better at it. It’s not just something you are born with (or not). You can learn to be a good, maybe, great connector and when you do, your work becomes much greater than the sum of the parts.
Q. Where did the expression, now the title of your book, Can’t Not Do, come from? What does it mean?
A. The phrase kept coming up whenever I asked people how they felt about creating a particular change in the world. It conveys the sense of deeper longing and commitment that some people feel when they have found that somethingthat goes beyond what they can do, or what they should do, and instead becomes something they simply “can’t not do.” It speaks to a stickiness and fortitude that is unique, but attainable. In my 17 years at Social Ventures Partners I’ve seen this again and again. Remarkable people and organizations that share a passion and a commitment to create a better world.
Q. How did you find your own Can’t Not Do? What are the causes you’re most passionate about?
A. What I’ve come to learn over the last 17 years is that my “can’t not do” is enabling and empowering other people to see that they can, in fact, have a much greater positive impact on the world than they might currently think. I have watched and worked alongside hundreds of these people all over the world and I’ve learned what makes them tick, how they reach their greatest potential. I want every person to discover their own unique potential for social change, and then to commit to it with passion. I want everyone to find and act on their Can’t Not Do.
Ernest Gundling, PhD, is Managing Partner at Aperian Global, a consulting firm he co-founded in 1990, that now offers global talent development solutions to 15,000 people a year in more than 15 languages and 60 countries. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area (Oakland), Dr. Gundling acts as a Senior Asia specialist, assisting clients in developing strategic global approaches to leadership, organization development, and relationships with key business partners. He coaches executives with global responsibilities and works with multicultural management teams to help formulate effective business plans. He is a frequent contributor to such publications as California Management Review, Training Magazine, Mobility, and Advances in Global Leadership, and has written/coauthored four previous books including: What is Global Leadership?, Working GlobeSmart, Global Diversity, and The 3M Way to Innovation. Dr. Gundling holds a Ph.D. and a Master of Arts from the University of Chicago, and a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University.
Christie Caldwell (coauthor) is Director of Consulting for Asia-Pacific at Aperian Global where she is responsible for Global Talent Development solutions for Global 500 companies across the region. Christie drives thought leadership and innovative approaches to support clients’ global talent development needs. Based in Shanghai, she conducts research and writes regularly on topics related to globalization, and leadership development for high potentials in fast-growth markets. Christie earned a Masters Degree from Harvard University, and completed a Masters Program at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Karen Cvitkovich (coauthor) is a Senior Consultant with Aperian Global, and has worked as an intercultural consultant, facilitator, and coach for nearly two decades. She has counseled clients in the areas of global leadership, teams, negotiations, diversity and inclusion, change management and post-acquisition integration. She holds a M.S. from Lesley University and a Bachelors of Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts. In addition, she is certified in CTI Coach Training, Neuro Leadership and in various psychometrics. Currently based in Boston, Karen also co-authored What is Global Leadership?
About APERIAN GLOBAL:
Founded in 1990, Aperian Global provides consulting, training, and online learning tools for global talent development, partnering with clients in more than 62 countries in the past year alone (with some 170+ Consultants and 4,000+ Country Specialists delivered over 1,800 training workshops in 15 languages). Aperian Global’s GlobeSmart® is the industry-leading online cultural intelligence tool, focused on how to conduct business effectively around the world. It has been used by over 800,000 individuals with more than 160 organizations and universities worldwide. Aperian Global offers global talent development solutions, including consulting, design and delivery, to one third of the Global Fortune 100. The firm has pioneered the development of blended solutions that use online learning to enhance instruction, while integrating global reach, thought leadership, and innovative technology to address the needs of clients worldwide. Visit http://www.aperianglobal.com.