Know the Characteristics of the Global Business Leader or Find Yourself Wanting Out By the Age of Forty

By Van R. Wood, Ph.D.

Philip Morris Chair In International Business, and

Professor of Marketing

Virginia Commonwealth University

School of Business

While most newcomers to the job market in the world of commerce focus on skills that are immediately transparent (e.g. target marketing, developing a marketing mix - product, place, price and promotion, reading a balance sheet or income statement, developing financial ratios and analytics), those that want to avoid the dreaded "how did I get here," syndrome that typically comes at about age forty, take a serious and sustained look at the characteristics of the global business leader of the 21st century. Imagine arriving at middle age - again after 15 to 20 years of working diligently for a company or companies, and finding yourself stuck in the bullpen of office space, being micro-managed by some nitwit that you have no respect for much less any desire to work for. Here's a series of tips to avoid this scenario.

First, ask yourself - what is the singular driving force that is affecting business today? While you may have a number of answers to this question, a good answer is globalization. That is, the system that is propelling the world's youngest economy, the global economy, to be the true engine of prosperity in today's world. It is the new business structure that is radically shifting the balance of competitive advantage from incumbents to challenger. It is bringing down the cost of money (to finance business deals), and bringing down the costs of technologies that allow entrepreneurs to understand and reach customers and form strategic partnerships no matter where they exist in the world. Globalization has lowered the barriers of entry and allowed anyone, or any company, or any country to be a winner. It is the evolving arrangement of world-wide commerce that is allowing all the would-be "Davids" of the world to challenge any "Goliath," and live and prosper afterwards. Know it, be part of it or be wanting by the age of forty (for more details see - The Lexus and the Olive Tree - Understanding Globalization by Thomas L Friedman, Anchor Books, 2000).

Second, ask yourself - what will it take for me to survive and thrive in the midst of globalization? Let it be known straight up that the old model of having attended to the "right" school, or being "one of the gang," or being "networked" or being a "loyal soldier" in no longer sufficient for survival or prosperity. What are needed are capabilities of a specific nature that you can understand and develop in yourself overtime. To be successful in the 21st century, to develop into a leader in the 21st century, you need to become a competent global manager who possesses a well rounded set of skills that run broad and deep in a number of areas. Perhaps the most important of such skills include the following.

Become multicultural and multilingual . Future business leaders will be boundary spanners that can cut through the silos that hold and separate human societies. Go beyond the current norm of most Americans, who remain isolated within the walls of one language (English) and one culture (western, north - American). Why English remains the main language in which most business is conducted today, the rise of the Internet and globalization is spawning the rejuvenation and growth of many other languages as e-mail is now being sent in over 1,000 languages and World Wide Web pages offering multiple language options are common. Having the ability to participate in a conversation in Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic or other languages offers possibilities for deeper relationships to be developed and greater understanding and respect to be garnered from foreign counterparts (not to mention future employers). However, if one is just sensitive to a foreign counterpart's culture, realizing that his or her perception of time, space, material objects, relationships and agreements (see E.T. Hall - The Silent Language of International Business for more details) may be different from yours, the beginnings of trusting relationships, based on mutual respect, can be brought about and your ability to span boundaries and cut across cultures (to be multicultural) can be developed.

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