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The New Globalisation Is East Moving Towards The West, While
The New Globalisation Is East Moving Towards The West, While
The New Globalisation Is East Moving Towards The West, While
What are some of the trends shaping our future, and what kind of
leadership behaviour will help us navigate through our future? What
leadership competencies will help us manage the trends that we see
today?
New form of Globalisation: East moving towards the West
The London Cab is as much an icon of the British capital as the Big Ben or
the Tower of London. Chinese car manufacturer Zhejiang Geely bought
black cab maker Manganese Bronze. Geely also bought Volvo in 2010 and
couple of years ago Tata bought Jaguar and Land Rover, two of the
proudest names in the car industry.
Indians are now leading massive global organisations, and the likes of
Satya Nadella, Indra Nooyi, Shantanu Narayen, Rakesh Kapoor, Ajit Jain,
Anshu Jain, and Ajay Banga will increase in the coming years. In the
academic world, Prof. Rakesh Khurana, Sanjeev Kulkarni, Deepak Jain and
Nitin Nohria along with many others are heading prestigious universities
worldwide.
Environmental challenges
Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, said in a shareholder meeting that Apple's
environmental efforts also made economic sense, but when challenged
by a conservative shareholder activist group that Apple wouldn't do
anything related to the environment that didn't follow a clear profit motive,
Cook firmly replied with anger in his voice that "we do a lot of things for
reasons besides profit motive," and recommended that anyone who had a
problem with that "should get out of the stock." "When we work on making
our devices accessible by the blind," he said, "I don't consider the bloody
ROI [return on investment]."
The need for 'system' thinking rather than just ‘cause and effect'
thinking and 'long-term vision' yet focus on 'short-term sustainability' is
what will help the future leaders address the environmental and resource
challenges. We need leaders who will be socially responsible and focus
on a triple bottom line: Profits, People and the Planet.
The Return of Ayn Rand
"But you see," said Roark quietly, "I have, let's say, sixty years to live. Most
of that time will be spent working. I've chosen the work I want to do. If I find
no joy in it, then I'm only condemning myself to sixty years of torture. And I
can find the joy only if I do my work in the best way possible to me. But the
best is a matter of standards-and I set my own standards. I inherit nothing. I
stand at the end of no tradition. I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of
one." Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead.
The new generation is not just bothered about where the next meal will
come from but they are also bothered about belonging, autonomy, self-
realisation, meaning and purpose. The good news is that the younger
generation understands the need for personal meaning and values, and
embrace Victor E. Frankl as much as they do Ayn Rand. "Everything can be
taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms-to choose
one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own
way," Frankl wrote in his book, Man's search for meaning. Employees need
work that suits their personal values and adds meaning to their lives.
Customers want products that are customised for individual tastes and
thus the time of Individualism and personal meaning is here! This means
that the 2020 leader needs to clearly articulate a meaning, a purpose
and manage organisations where individuals can have their freedom,
flexibility and still manage to work in a way that is meaningful to their
core values.
Analjit Singh, founder and chairman of Max Healthcare and Max Bupa
Health Insurance Co Ltd and Executive-Chairman of Max Life Insurance,
while addressing a gathering recently, said we should move away from
blue-sky thinking to cloudy-sky thinking, keeping in mind the fast paced
changes we experience. Based on our work and interviews,
Looking at all this data, I believe that the 2020 leader will demonstrate
more Athena characteristics than Ares characteristics.
Athena, the Greek Goddess, led the disciplined and strategic side of war, in
contrast to her brother Ares: the patron of violence, bloodlust and
slaughter - "the raw force of war". Athena is the goddess of knowledge,
purity, arts, crafts, learning, justice and wisdom. She represents
intelligence, humility, consciousness, cosmic knowledge, creativity,
education, enlightenment, the arts, eloquence and power.
To lead in the future, we need to be more evolved, compassionate,
socially responsible, system focused and accepting of diversity and