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A recent survey of 3,000 high-impact entrepreneurs in 34 countries suggests that those in China, India, Kenya, New Zealand and the United States have the most positive overall opinions of the policies in place to promote their growth. The five countries surveyed with the most nega tive overall perceptions are Greece, Venezuela, Ukraine, Andorra and Poland. Source: Monitor Group

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one disputes that talent management, workforce productivity, leadership development and a highperformance culture are crucial to corporate performance, few agree about how, or even whether, personnel departments influence those factors. As a practical matter, some are suggesting that its time to back off the demand for strategy with a capital S and seek a more straightforward, results-oriented model. The way to become a business partner is to quit agonizing over being a business partner and trying to force unnecessary activity on the rest of the enterprise, said Dan Bowling, former global head of human resources at Coca-Cola Enterprises. Focus instead on what is important. One alternative model that has gained some traction envisions human resources not as a single department trying to morph itself in multiple directions, but rather as competencies embedded companywide, sometimes as discrete job functions, but more often as distributed responsibilities in which every employee has a human resources component to their job. This model, in short, casts human resources as

an almost intrinsic binding force in an increasingly specialized, far-flung and self-managed world. Paul Buller, professor of management at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., sees it this way: H.R. needs to become an internal consultant and change agent to facilitate vertical and horizontal integration, so that everyone in the organization sees how what they are doing is connected to the big picture a line of sight that allows for continual adaptation. This would provide a unique source of competitive advantage that would be hard to imitate. Some predict that were human resources to become a more widely integrated competency, it would engender an osmotic permeability between H.R. and line management. Eventually, the distinction between the two would vanish. Laurie Ruet timann, a recruiter, trainer and founder of HRM Today, a social network for human resources professionals, put it succinctly: H.R. [will be] fixed when it ceases to be H.R. and starts to be a core and critical management responsibility. [H.R.] shouldnt serve the business. We should be the business.

he nature of economic growth has changed. From the mid1990s to 2007, developing economies especially those in Asia experienced a period of growth unmatched in scale, optimism or speed. This era can be characterized as one of easy growth. During this time, it became easier and cheaper to gain access to capital than in any other period in history, globalization created unprecedented admittance to new markets and consumers, and household consumer borrowing drove spending around the world. A gen eration of corporate leaders was shaped by this period, when growth was there for the taking; all they had to do was show up. And now, suddenly, that era is over (see Figures 1 and 2), and we have entered the era of smart growth, in which growth is slow but change is fast. In his recent report, Smart Growth: Is Asia Ready?, Korn/Ferry leadership and talent consulting managing director Indronil Roy explained how this period of complexity and uncertainty in markets, finance and currency will require leaders to think and act differently to unearth growth where none is evident. Leaders shrewdness about growth will make a difference in corporate performance. How long will smart-growth conditions persist? A resounding number of CEOs believe these conditions will last for the rest of the decade, if not longer, for myriad reasons. The global financial crisis led to a stricter regulatory regime that is (sometimes justifiably) constraining risk

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Focus on Minds, Not Markets

taking. Regulatory pressure on the banking system in particular is reducing the risk capital available. Simultaneously, rapid reduction in consumer debt, stubborn unemployment and wage stagnation in the West continue to drive down consumer demand to a degree that cant be offset by the rise in emergingmarket consumption. Increasingly focused on costs and their bottom lines, corporations are reducing investments. And, finally, the momentum of globalization has slowed, if not reversed. Some governments are reverting to a protectionist agenda and erecting higher trade barriers to satisfy domestic political pressures. My executive team is wired for easy growth, one banking CEO in Asia explained. In the 20 years that they have been in management roles, growth was a given. Even at the depths of the Lehman Brothers crisis, we knew that if we could just hold on to our basics long enough, the tide would turn. My team is still waiting for the tide. Like him, many CEOs are grappling with a vital question: How can we create growth where there appears to be none? Is there a combination of inventiveness, courage, wisdom and skills that can accomplish that? As a first step, businesses must make a mental leap, moving away from the notion that growth exists in certain markets and toward the idea that growth emerges from certain leaders. In fact, it is increasingly hard to find markets that grow at a double-digit annual pace. Instead, organizations must look within for
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China

Figure 1: GDP growth in emerging/developing economies

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Latin America Other Developing Countries India

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Africa

2 1 0

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Figure 2: GDP growth in developed economies

Other Advanced

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EU-15 Japan 19962005 20062011 2011 2012 20122016 20172025

a leadership team that can carve out growth where others may see no hope. This view makes leadership more complicated and nuanced, but also more powerful: It holds that leaders, not market conditions, define the limits of growth. But which leaders, exactly? Those who drove high performance in easy growth will not automatically excel

in smart growth. In a recent study of leaders at 14 companies across Asia, Korn/Ferry found that two sets of characteristics indicate smart-growth readiness, or lack of it: leadership maturity and learning agility. Leadership Maturity is an individual leaders ability to operate effectively at high levels of complexity, ambiguity and scale. Korn/Ferry

Briefings on Talent & Leadership

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The shift in skill and mindset for growth leaders
Business Growth Business Growth

Easy growth leadership

GDP/Market Growth

Smart growth leadership

GDP/Market Growth

Leadership mindset: Growth is in the market Leadership mindset: Growth is in the leaders Picking the right product market strategies will Building leadership capacity is crucial give us growth for growth. Participate Innovate Find the growth markets and get in as early as possible. Create new demand and build new market spaces. Fuel Sharpen  Feed growth engines with more resources and investment. Build growth engines that are resource-efficient and lean. Good enough Must Have Responsive to customer expediency, not insight. Use deep customer insight to drive customer urgency. Specialize Collaborate Get specialized teams to execute with expertise. Get diverse teams to work together and create the new and different.

measures this with an assessment that examines the communication, decision-making and operating styles of executives. Think of maturity as the indicator of a seasoned executive, someone with experience in complex situations who handles challenges with grace. Given the shifts under way, maturity will be paramount. Learning Agility is an individual leaders ability to operate effectively amid disruption, speed and volatility. This is measured with Korn/Ferrys viaEdge assessment, which analyzes interpersonal skills, self-awareness, deftness with complexity and change, and the ability to deliver results in first-time situations. Think of agility as an indicator of a fast-learning executive, someone who knows what to do when he doesnt know what to do. Given a fast-changing environment in the smart-growth era, agility will be the other differentiator among leaders.

Taken together, these are the best factors for predicting smart-growth readiness. Both can be measured fairly and accurately, and benchmarked against leaders in the relevant industry and markets pragmatic considerations if they are to be used in business. Both can be developed in individuals, giving organizations a way forward to enhance the competitiveness of their leadership teams. The aggregate maturity and agility of a leadership talent pool point toward a companys ability to drive growth rates over and above those of normal market participants. Broadly speaking, the ratio of those with high scores in maturity and agility to those with low scores reveals a businesss overall smart-growth capacity. Korn/Ferry examined both head-tohead competitors and markets with multiple competitors and found that a higher group score means that organization is far more likely to have

a higher rate of top-line growth. Businesses routinely talk about talent being their most important asset, but without a clear analytics and benchmarking platform to measure and value talent assets, that narrative often lacks conviction. Korn/Ferrys smart-growth research provides a new framework for investigating how leadership is linked to growth. It may provide the much-needed tools to ascertain the true value of leaders and leadership teams. Investors, boards and stakeholders will continue to push management teams to quantify and benchmark talent assets to support evidencebased decision making, as they should. Businesses that excel in this area of competence will see real advantage in the marketplace to paraphrase Warren Buffett as the others are left dangerously exposed by the retreating tide of growth.

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