The Hindu Business Line : Seven challenges in the new business world

Start by saying, “Glo…,” and you can be assured of a round of yawns. But this is different, say Harold L. Sirkin, James W. Hemerling and Arindam K. Bhattacharya in Globality ( www.HachetteBookGroupUSA.com). They define globality not as a new and different term for globalisation, but as the name for a new and different global reality in which we’ll all be competing with everyone, fr om everywhere, for everything.

In this new environment, business flows in every direction, because companies have no centres, the authors describe. “Globality is a blockbuster new script – action, drama, suspense, and road picture all packed into one – with a sprawling cast of characters and locations in every corner of the earth.”

Any player on this ever-shifting stage must, however, contend with one or more or even all of seven struggles discussed in the book. “The first struggle involves cost,” the authors enumerate. They explain how low cost is the great leveller that has enabled small and local companies in rapidly developing economies to evolve into global challengers.

Next comes the struggle of growing people, involving the following as the main actions: recruiting for rapid growth, developing for depth, deploying for early results, and letting leaders build. Rapidity of growth is evident from the big migration numbers; in China, for instance, some 140 to 150 million migrant workers are constantly on the move from province to province, crowding into cities where there is the most work.

Developing for depth involves training and development of the new recruits so they have the depth of skills, and a deeper sense of commitment to the company. Realising that there is no strong correlation between the quality of an employee’s education and his or her success within the company, employers have come up with innovative initiatives.

“Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is grooming science graduates for an IT career through TCS Ignite – a programme in which new hires receive seven months of training but are on the payroll and work on real company projects throughout that period.”

ICICI Bank has a ‘state-of-the-art training engine’ comprising “extensive e-learning capabilities, nine management institutes located throughout the country, and some 2,500 ‘content providers,’ aka teachers.”
Deploying for early results has become necessary owing to the push for competitive advantage. Wipro, for example, is able to lower the average age of the team with no decrease in productivity, by breaking down “complex processes into smaller and simpler elements, so that employees with an average of four to five years of experience can accomplish tasks that would formerly have required an employee with eight to 10 years of experience.”
Importantly, the second challenge of growing people needs builder-leaders with plenty of room to operate. “Builders are quite different from operators, whose strength lies in maintaining and making incremental improvements to established operations.”
While operators tend to be more effective in relatively mature environments, builders often make it up as they go along. “They’re more willing to act fast and to base decisions on intuition as well as due diligence.” To build a company that can succeed in the rapidly developing economies, builders are needed in leadership positions throughout the company, the authors argue.
Ideal read for the competition-challenged.

D. Murali

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Seven challenges in the new business world