What Is a Global Leader?

Leading a global enterprise is akin to reinventing yourself. This re-invention starts not in the boardroom or in some melifluous presentation of a visionary idea, but rather in the investigative pursuit of your own enterprise. Global leaders must ruthlessly question what they do until they find Gurcharan Das’s “kettle that writes their paycheck.” With each new locale that your enterprise touches there will be a human being (symbolized by the kettle in Das’s India) who will make a chioce to accept or decline your firms offer of value. When you understand this person and his individual tastes, habits and preferences, you can begin the upstream journey though your entire value chain to ensure that your company re-invents itself in the pursuit of satisfying this individual’s needs.

The key traits that will enable the global leader to navigate through a sea of ordinary facts and unimportant noise that and remain close to your customer are: 1) Take an interest in people that are different than you. 2) Develop a mindful sense of balance and 3) cultivate a sense of entrepreneurship. Taking an interest in people that are different in you is your directive to pour yourself into the local culture until you understand local tatses and differences. This experiential knowledge will allow you to best compete in areas where behaviors, biases, and customer priorities drive purchasing decisions. Part and parcel to understanding the areas where you are competing, is the ability to be socially responsible for the people in those areas. This means ensuring that your business does no harm to the society you rely on to purchase and/or produce your goods, and that you as an individual know and remain active in the society to the point where you can egange in the social and political processes that will impact your enterprise.

Having a mindful sense of balance means that you understand the “two-speed” world that we live in and can manuver between board meetings in first world corporate...