Global Ambitions

An Asian company set its sights on becoming number two in its field globally. They had the experience, the funds, the expertise but they needed leaders capable of taking them to the next level.

Like many Asian corporations, they had grown by creating a collection of companies, rather than a corporate system. With a great deal of wisdom, they created a safe playing field internally to foster competition and build business muscle. The next step would require a different kind of behavior internally – more communication, more sharing, more collaboration while still retaining distinct brands with distinct personalities.

It took almost a year for us to define the competencies that the new leaders of this initiative would require. We had multiple conversations with the company’s senior leaders to suss out the key learning objectives. Careful discussions about the degree of challenge or “heat” that the company and national cultures could withstand. Deep drilling into the meaning of the corporate values, testing how they are meant to manifest in employee behaviors.

Finally, a group of business and functional leaders were identified and assessed. Assessment centers were combined with sophisticated algorithm-based queries into potential. Senior leaders began to refine their expectations and to create a shared sense of what excellence looks like by observing the participants in the assessment center, side by side with professional assessors.

The program design took cohorts of leaders through a series of developmental experiences designed around the corporation’s core business – food and incorporating the corporation’s key values, including the importance of family. The learning goals included developing greater system awareness, more acute business acumen, the ability to take and hold a leadership stand, improving awareness of cultural sensitivities in the target markets, and improved collaboration skills. The tools were sometimes unusual – art, music, farming, cooking, martial arts. The program shifted back and forth between developing individual capabilities and creating strong team skills.

Nearly a hundred leaders navigated the program. Many assumed positions as general managers, heads of functions, pioneers in the global expansion. Even the corporate leadership team and their significant others participated in the process for themselves and as mentors, coaches and givers of grounded and useful feedback.

Today the company is the second fastest growing in its category.

Do you have regional or global growth ambitions? We can help.