Unlocking the value of developing leaders: Towards global leadership

Several of the world's top performing organizations have acknowledged the merit in embracing and developing global mind-set to compete successfully in international markets. Towards this end, companies across the globe are not only sweating it out through training their leadership teams and high potential performers but also are committed to achieving multicultural competencies. Focus is not only on developing organizational member's knowledge and skills to plan, operate and deliver results globally but also to prepare them with right orientation to develop global mind-set. In this paper, we set out to explore global leadership development approaches adopted by multinational companies (MNCs) in India. A qualitative study was carried out involving semi-structured interviews with business and HR leaders from MNCs, with an attempt to understand global leadership development from emerging countries perspective. Findings provide perspectives on current leadership development approaches adopted in the firms contacted for the study purpose. How leadership development practices have evolved in these firms, their driving factors and top management's role in implementation success is presented. We also discuss limitations in terms of small sample size, potential bias and subjectivity in content analyses and leader's self reporting and presentation. Paper draws insights from contemporary global leadership approaches and some of the best practices across various companies from different sectors.