Developing A Global Mindset

Developing a Global Mindset B D SINGH Sr. Prof & Associate Dean (MDP & C) IMT,GHAZIABAD

 Market success is only part of globalisation. We must globalize every activity in the company. We’ve made some progress in sourcing products and components so critical to survive and win in a pricecompetitive deflationary world, but our challenge is to go beyond that – to capitalize on the vast intellectual capital available around the globe. – John F Welch Jr. CEO  There are no German or American companies. There are only successful or

Background  The two most dreaded obstacles in the way of human progress- i.e. Time & Distance have almost been eliminated, due to technological revolution  Mind boggling pace of changes have shrank the wide world to a “global village”.  We live in interconnected, interdependent, world economy.  Globalization has made free flow of goods & Services – possible opening the new visa of opportunities – for corporate and individuals – age of mega mergers & acquisitions  A global business manager must have a global business perspective and understanding of how the world works – Learning, unlearning and relearning are integral part of the knowledge intensive global business.  A global manager must develop a global mindset – the capacity to analyze, appreciate & leverage the

 The 19th and early 20th centuries were marked by intense nationalism , building Empires & Colonies & second half of 20th century intense witnessed a phenomenon known as “cold war” - bi - polar world.  During the last 25 years the world has become borderless & multi polar –  Wars, if at all fought, are for acquiring economic supremacy--- mostly fierce commercial/marketing competitive wars are seen – Global business Olympiads taking place every day.  Technology and business sans frontiers- no one is permanent foe or friend – the traditional enemies have become friends and allies – European countries, India & China, Korea & Japan.

 Leveraging on diversities and contradictions – thriving on chaos  Diversities like multi – ethnic, multicultural, multilingual, multi religious challenges.  Contradiction & paradox like–  Global peace vs. global terrorism  globalization vs. localized block – (UNO, WTO, ILO, WTO, vs. EUs, NAFTA, SAFTA etc.)  Talent hunting jobs vs. job hunting talent – BPO, KPO.  Companies seeking talents & talents seeking global companies  Business hunting money vs. money hunting business.  Ruthless competitiveness vs. business alliances  Locals/ natives vs. outsiders In above back drop, it is important & imperative for corporate as well as individuals to develop global mind sets to take maximum – advantages.

What is mind set?  Mind set is a condition where an individual is over sensitized to some part of information available at the expense of other parts . it sensitizes us to the patterns which have enables to solve problem as was done in the past  It produces fixation & stereotyping in problem solving behavior  Drucker – investigated how past experience may block productive problem solving – functional fixation  This mind set can create difficulties for manager when they are faced with new problems.

Other Barriers in creative / global thinking  Perceptual blocks – prevents individual receiving a true relevant picture of outside work / world  Cultural blocks, which result from influence of the society – cross – cultural clashes  Emotional blocks – such as fear anxiety / chauvinism  Intellectual blocks – I know all- we are the best

How Mindset Works?  The concept of mindset, also referred to as

cognitive scheme, mental map, or paradigm

 Mindsets evolve through an interactive process. The current mindset guides the collection and interpretation of new information. To the extent that this new information is consistent with the current mindset, it reinforces that mindset. From time to time, however, some elements of the new information appear to be truly novel and inconsistent with the existing paradigm. In this event, we either reject the new information or forge a change in our mindset. The likelihood that our mindsets will undergo a change depends largely on how explicitly self- conscious we are of our current mindsets : the more hidden and subconscious the cognitive schema, the greater the likehihood of rigidity .

What is a global mindset?

 Every mindset represents a knowledge structure, and the two primary attributes of any knowledge structure are differentiation ( the number of elements in the person or organization's knowledge base) and integration (the person or organization's ability to synthesize the various elements). Differentiation in knowledge structures refers to the narrowness versus breadth of perspective that the individual or organization brings to the particular context. For instance, think of the proverbial functional expert with almost no exposure outside one functional areas. “tunnel vision” – a classic case of low differentiation in knowledge structure. In contrast, a manager with significant experience in multiple functional areas has a more highly differentiated knowledge structure. In contrast, a manager with significant experience in multiple functional areas has a more highly differentiation in knowledge structure and is unlikely to exhibit the tunnel vision syndrome.  On the other hand, integration in knowledge structures refers to the extent to which the person or organization is able to rise above and integrate the various perspectives or knowledge elements.  Integration becomes a critical attribute of mental templates in those context where differentiation is high – removing the undesirables /indigestible & adopting desirables

 We would define a global mindset as one that combines an openness to and awareness of diversity across cultures and markets with a propensity and ability to synthesize across this diversity.  Global managers have exceptionally open minds. They respect how different countries do things, and they have the imagination to appreciate why they do them that way.  They sort through the debris of cultural excuses and find opportunities to innovate.” they remove carbon to get spark.

What is a Global Mindset?

Open to Diversity Across Cultures and Markets Yes

Knowledgeable about diversity across Cultures and markets? Yes

Able to Integrate Diversity Across Cultures and Markets Yes

Global Mindset

How a Global Mindset Differs from a Parochial or a Diffused Mindset Able to integrate Diversity Across Cultures & Market Closed to Diversity Across Cultures and Markets

Parochial

Global

Mindset

Mindset

Parochial

Diffused

Mindset

Mindset

Unable to Integrate Diversity Across Cultures & Markets

Open to Diversity Across Cultures and Markets

Key advantages

 An early mover advantage in identifying emerging opportunities:  Greater sophistication and more finegrained analysis regarding the trade-off between local adaptation and global standardization  Smoother coordination across complimentary functional activities distributed across borders:  Faster roll-out of new product concepts and technologies  More rapid and efficient sharing of best practices across subsidiaries  Lower failure rate in expatriate assignments

 If a company is in the early stages of becoming systematic about cultivating global mindsets, the highest returns would come from focusing on these more at senior levels.

Development of Global Mindset  . Integration of new knowledge and the development of a new mindset

Curiosity about how the world works

Exposure to diversity and novelty

Development of a Global Mindset

Articulation of current mindset Time

 An explicit and self-conscious articulation of current mindset  Exposure to diversity and novelty  A disciplined attempt to develop an integrated perspective that weaves together diverse strands of knowledge about cultures and markets.  Curiosity about the world and a commitment to becoming smarter about how the world works.

Cultivating Knowledge Regarding Diverse  Cultivating a global mindset at the level of individuals is a slow process that can take years of learning through experience in multiple cultures  Cultivate literacy of and enthusiasm for diverse cultures and markets.  Formal education : Formal education (language skills and knowledge building regarding diverse cultures and markets) can take place in the form of self-study courses, university-based education, or in company seminars and management development programs.  Participation in cross – border business teams and projects – Consider, for example, a leading U.S. bank creating a “Euro” team to coordinate the company’s response to introduction of the new European currency.  Immersion experiences in foreign cultures –

Emerging HR challenges & Practices One aspect – sourcing

 “Advancement in technologies has new resulted in follow the sun’ models, which dictate that the work never stops. This enables teams across countries to work as one unit, cutting across every cultural and physical barrier. They work with one goal and hence, come up with faster solutions –  Old business and hiring structures are both being replaced by a global sourcing model that places emphasis on doing the work where it makes most sense, sourcing resources from where they are the cheapest and of the best quality, and delivering where there is the best client interface. This has led to the formation of a global workforce that collaborates  Seamlessly to create profit for the host country, and the country where the organization is headquartered.  “Globalization Universalisation of IT has led to extensive movement of professionals from one country to another. Though this has been largely characterized by migration from the East to the West (specifically the USA), the reverse trend is also now being seen

 This has led to the governments concerned interfacing with each other (in areas such as labour regulations, visa rules, work permit quota, etc.) to enable to smoother flow of professional from one country to another,”  As companies seek talent and talent seeks global companies  “Companies increasingly encourage and expect employees to have cross-cultural competencies and international experience. It indicates an added dimension of appreciation for cultural diversity, different approaches to communication and different ways to solve common problems,”  Technology also has the potential to change culture and economic structures. These changes in behavior, technology, demographic, resources and global competition are forcing businesses to strategically adapt to new ways to fill talent scarcity gaps.  The talent forces that are emerging to fill scarcity gaps in our time are from every conceivable part of the globe and are adapting to the flat world faster

 The IT talent hunt begins: Technology has enabled recruiters to use several innovative methods to reach out to a diverse candidate pool. The global talent has created an entirely new generation of recruiters who work in different time zones and who need to connect across multiple cultures. Some of the specific competencies that recruiters have developed include change management, flexibility/ adaptability and contextual thinking (the ability to see the bigger picture) etc.  RPO – Recruitment process outsourcing : RPO has turned out to be a growing global trend. The emergence of RPO has solution is growing at a very steady pace and even in India, it promises to be the way of the future.  E- Recruitment, job portals: According to industry estimates, 30-40 per cent of junior and mid – level placements in India are now made through the internet. According to experts, the job search market including print medium and placement consultants will grow from

Conclusion  The economic landscape of the world is changing rapidly and becoming increasingly global.  How successful a company is at exploiting emerging opportunities and tackling accompanying challenges depends crucially on how intelligent it is at observing and interpreting the dynamic world in which it operates. Creating a global mindset is one of the central ingredients required for building such intelligence.

Case Cultivating a Global Mindset: The VeriFone Approach- Circa 1997  VeriFone was a market leader in the automation and delivery of secure payment and payment-related transactions. Officially headquartered in redwood City, California, the company was founded in 1981 and was acquired by Hewlett – Packard in June 1997 for 1.29 billion. VeriFone’s stated mission was “To create and lead the transaction automation industry worldwide.” In 1997, the company had tree thousand employees based at more than thirty facilities in North America, South America, Asia and Australia, Europe, and Africa. Here are some highlights of how VeriFone cultivated a global mindset among its people and more broadly at the level of the entire company:  Hatim Tyabji, Verifone’s CEO, disdained the idea of an all-powerful corporate headquarters and preferred to view the company as a network of locations. Many corporate functions (for example,

Human resource management and management information systems) were managed in a decentralised fashion out of multiple global locations such as Dallas (texas), Bangalore (India), Taipei (Taiwan), and Honolulu (Hawaii).  Virtually all employees of the company were provided with laptops and were connected to each other electronically. Every company facility was also equipped with videoconferencing facilities. Upon signing on to their e-mail systems, employees automatically saw a list of holidays and local times at various verifone locations.  The top management team, consisting of the CEO and his ten direct reports, met for five days every six weeks at a different location around the globe.  The leadership was dedicated to instilling the company’s core values (commitment to excellence, dedication to customer needs, promotion of teamwork, recognition of the individual, a global mindset, and ethical conduct) among all employees. The CEO wrote the corporate philosophy manual himself. This manual was then issued in a number of languages including English, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. When rolling out corporate programs, senior managers traveled personally to various locations to get local input and to provide guidelines regarding how the program could be tailored to the local context.

 Prior to its acquisition by Hewlett- Packard, VeriFone published the CEO’s letter to Shareholders (in its Annual Report) in multiple languages.  The company conducted recruitment on a global basis and instituted structure around the globe.  One of the company’s recognized core competencies was its ability to leverage know – how from various locations in order to serve customers or pursue new opportunities. As an example, one of the company’s sales reps in Greece learned from a large customer that a competitor had raised concerns about VeriFone’s expertise in debit cards. The sales rep sent out an e-mail request to colleagues within the company for information and references on debit installations. Within twenty-four hours, he had sixteen responses and ten references including the names and phone numbers of established customers with debit card installations. The next day armed with this information and able to say that VeriFone had 400,000 installations worldwide, the rep closed a

 Provide a concrete illustration of VeriFone’s already well-developed global mindset, they also serve to reinforce the notion of what constitute desirable attitudes and behaviors within the company – thereby leading to a further deepening of the global mindset.