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Authors: Ravi Venkatesan
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emphasize a limited number
of expats and not in the top job; everyone knows they will go back to their country
of origin and will wait them out.” Thus, the top priority, as the success of companies
like Cummins, Unilever, Bosch, and Standard Chartered in India suggests, must be to
grow a no-compromise leader who both is a trusted insider and understands India.
The Country Ambassador versus the Country Manager
Some companies experiment with an interesting profile: a country chairperson who is
a weak overlay over the business and largely plays an ambassadorial role. However,
statesmanship and ambassadors are best left to the realm of diplomacy. These roles
are a legacy of an era that no longer exists. GE tried the model over the past decade
with limited success and finally abandoned it. A ceremonial role, with no accountability
for the business and the responsibility only for engaging government, industry associations,
and other CEOs, is usually not effective. Everyone—employees, customers, business
partners, government officials—will quickly see this role for what it is and dismiss
the person as lightweight. This does disservice to the incumbent and the role.
The ambassadorial country manager who smells opportunity, but is powerless to act,
can become intensely frustrated. Increasingly, the connections among strategy and
execution, business, reputation, and regulation are tightening, so an artificial separation
of these functions is suboptimal. Bringing accountability for these together in a
single leader is vital for growing competent and well-rounded business leaders, who
are capable of even being the CEO someday.
If the business does require wise counsel, access, and influence and a senior public
face, a strong advisory board headed by an iconic leader who serves as a nonexecutive
chairperson may be a more prudent approach. We followed this model at Microsoft India
with considerable success; the approach is gaining popularity at companies like Coca-Cola,
Schneider Electric, and JCB.
The Country Manager’s Traits and Competencies
In 2010, I had to accept the fact that I had made a major hiring mistake. I was disappointed
because everyone had had huge hopes for this high-profile hire, an incredibly accomplished
and successful person. I was personally responsible for hiring this leader and had
followed a textbook process, yet the outcome had turned out to be poor. It forced
me to look back at my record of promoting and hiring senior leaders, including several
country heads.
On one hand, I had helped develop at least twenty-five leaders who were either CEOs
or running major divisions of companies in India by then. However, my batting average
with senior hires was only 50 percent. I was clearly better at growing than hiring
top executives, so I decided to work on my hiring ability by reflecting on my own
decisions, by talking to the best executive recruiters in the world, and by interviewing
a few leaders and leadership gurus. My aim was not to develop a robust new leadership
model; plenty exist. 1 Nor was it to propose a comprehensive new approach to executive recruitment. My objective
was to see if some attributes correlated highly with the success of senior leaders
in India. I eventually identified five attributes that make a difference. Being rigorous
about these when hiring has made an enormous difference to my success in recruiting
senior leaders.
When hiring senior business leaders such as country managers, it is common practice
to use a standard set of competencies. The list is usually long and includes familiar
attributes such as drive for results, execution ability, strategic thinking, customer
centricity, business acumen, and people and team leadership. These may all good things
to look for, but I have found that paying attention to three traits (courage, higher
ambition, and entrepreneurship) and two competencies (learning
of expats and not in the top job; everyone knows they will go back to their country
of origin and will wait them out.” Thus, the top priority, as the success of companies
like Cummins, Unilever, Bosch, and Standard Chartered in India suggests, must be to
grow a no-compromise leader who both is a trusted insider and understands India.
The Country Ambassador versus the Country Manager
Some companies experiment with an interesting profile: a country chairperson who is
a weak overlay over the business and largely plays an ambassadorial role. However,
statesmanship and ambassadors are best left to the realm of diplomacy. These roles
are a legacy of an era that no longer exists. GE tried the model over the past decade
with limited success and finally abandoned it. A ceremonial role, with no accountability
for the business and the responsibility only for engaging government, industry associations,
and other CEOs, is usually not effective. Everyone—employees, customers, business
partners, government officials—will quickly see this role for what it is and dismiss
the person as lightweight. This does disservice to the incumbent and the role.
The ambassadorial country manager who smells opportunity, but is powerless to act,
can become intensely frustrated. Increasingly, the connections among strategy and
execution, business, reputation, and regulation are tightening, so an artificial separation
of these functions is suboptimal. Bringing accountability for these together in a
single leader is vital for growing competent and well-rounded business leaders, who
are capable of even being the CEO someday.
If the business does require wise counsel, access, and influence and a senior public
face, a strong advisory board headed by an iconic leader who serves as a nonexecutive
chairperson may be a more prudent approach. We followed this model at Microsoft India
with considerable success; the approach is gaining popularity at companies like Coca-Cola,
Schneider Electric, and JCB.
The Country Manager’s Traits and Competencies
In 2010, I had to accept the fact that I had made a major hiring mistake. I was disappointed
because everyone had had huge hopes for this high-profile hire, an incredibly accomplished
and successful person. I was personally responsible for hiring this leader and had
followed a textbook process, yet the outcome had turned out to be poor. It forced
me to look back at my record of promoting and hiring senior leaders, including several
country heads.
On one hand, I had helped develop at least twenty-five leaders who were either CEOs
or running major divisions of companies in India by then. However, my batting average
with senior hires was only 50 percent. I was clearly better at growing than hiring
top executives, so I decided to work on my hiring ability by reflecting on my own
decisions, by talking to the best executive recruiters in the world, and by interviewing
a few leaders and leadership gurus. My aim was not to develop a robust new leadership
model; plenty exist. 1 Nor was it to propose a comprehensive new approach to executive recruitment. My objective
was to see if some attributes correlated highly with the success of senior leaders
in India. I eventually identified five attributes that make a difference. Being rigorous
about these when hiring has made an enormous difference to my success in recruiting
senior leaders.
When hiring senior business leaders such as country managers, it is common practice
to use a standard set of competencies. The list is usually long and includes familiar
attributes such as drive for results, execution ability, strategic thinking, customer
centricity, business acumen, and people and team leadership. These may all good things
to look for, but I have found that paying attention to three traits (courage, higher
ambition, and entrepreneurship) and two competencies (learning
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