If companies fail to hire and develop multicultural leaders, they will be unable to build a sustainable global competitive advantage. This was first published in Business Strategy Review Issue 2-2011. Subscribe today to receive your quarterly copy delivered to your home or work place. http://bit.ly/BSR-subscribe

1. Voices
Opinions are the elixir of debate. In Voices, matters
topical and controversial are aired and tested.
Farid Muna argues that if
companies fail to hire and develop
multicultural leaders,they will
be unable to build a sustainable
global competitive advantage.
In today’s
turbulent,
global economic
environment,
companies
can succeed
only if they
become more
multicultural
both in
their business practices and
in their choice of leaders. But
what are the characteristics of a
successful multicultural leader?
To answer that question, my
co-author Ziad Zennie and I did
extensive field research in a dozen
countries in the Middle East.The
findings showed that multicultural
leaders are cosmopolitan and
worldly, they have acquired the
cultural sensitivity necessary
to bridge cultures (even when
working within the same country)
and are able to conduct business
effectively across national borders.
Unfortunately, however, such
multicultural leaders are in short
supply. As a result, many companies
are handicapped not only by a lack
of diverse and multicultural senior
management at their home offices, but
they send executives overseas who,
while they have the right technical and
FaridMuna
Cultivating
multicultural
leaders
core business competencies needed
to manage projects or business units
while working in their home country,
turn out to lack the cross-cultural skills
needed to conduct business effectively
with other cultures and nations.
The right people
Companies that want to hire and
develop people who will become
great multicultural leaders need
to understand how to select, hire
and develop such people.
Our research, described in
Developing Multicultural Leaders, shows
that most outstanding multicultural
leaders go through three distinct
stages of development. At first they
can be described as potential leaders,
people who have acquired some or all
of the early ingredients for leadership
success starting from childhood.
These people then become aspiring
leaders, those who during their
careers have taken some or all of the
A person being assessed
for a leadership position
invariably wears a mask
(or several masks) when
being interviewed.
Scott McNealy: problems beyond high resolve
REVIEW
90 BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW ISSUE 2– 2011

2. paths that are part of the journey to
success. After a time, some of them
develop into outstanding leaders.
Potential leaders acquired some or
all of the following five ingredients
for leadership success during their
childhood, adolescence, educational
years and very early in their careers:
– Self-development They exhibit
an insatiable thirst and
hunger for more knowledge
and self-improvement.
– Taking responsibility They have
assumed responsibility early in life
(from childhood to their early 20s).
– Ethics and values They have
learned (from early in their
lives) to believe in integrity,
honesty, hard work, respect for
time and social responsibility.
– High-quality educationThey have
strong analytical skills and are
creative thinkers; they also have
strong social, team and leadership
skills, which are learned mainly
through extra-curricular activities.
– Exposure and role modelsThey
are open to learning from others,
from experience, from other
cultures and from role models.
To vastly improve their hiring of
multicultural managers, organisations
should select only those who have
at least two or three of the above
ingredients — in addition to other core
business competencies gained through
education and work experience.
Aspiring leaders also need special
development; the key is to look for
individuals who work hard, smart
and focused; implement training and
career development plans; engage in
self-development activities; develop
cultural sensitivity; have sharpened
emotional intelligence; and learn
from experience and adversity.
These are the paths to outstanding
leadership identified by our research.
Outstanding leaders are special.
When it comes to finding these more
experienced leaders (either from
the author
Farid A. Muna
faridmuna@gmail.com
Muna holds a PhD from London
Business School and is Chairman
of Meirc Training Consulting.
His latest book, co-authored with
Ziad A Zennie, is Developing
Multicultural Leaders: The
Journey to Leadership Success
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
within or outside the organisation), it is
important to look for those who have
already shown potential for growth
and more responsibility. Here again,
when seeking candidates for such
positions, interviewers must cover each
of the five early ingredients, but the
task is much more difficult because,
although these leaders have had
years of experience, past behaviour
is not always a significant indicator
of future success for three reasons:
– It is difficult to measure
competencies and leadership
potential. As a result, candidates
for leadership positions must
be asked probing questions
about actual (not hypothetical)
accomplishments, behaviour and
situations. In addition, references
(other than those supplied by the
candidate) need to be pursued.
– Strengths and weaknesses in one
context may not be the same
in a different context, culture
or situation. (For example,
Scott McNealy’s high-minded
resolve became obstinacy
at Sun Microsystems.)
– A person being assessed for a
leadership position invariably
wears a mask (or several masks)
when being interviewed.The task
of the interviewer is to discover
what that mask may be hiding.
In brief, I have found that early
life experiences, exposure to other
cultures, and a strong desire to learn
from successes and failures are strong
indicators of future leadership success.
What is critical, however, is that —
once identified and hired — these
future outstanding multicultural
leaders be helped to reach their
full potential through challenging
assignments, mentoring, coaching
and career development plans.These
strategic actions will go a long way
to ensure that companies have the
right multicultural talent pools for
succession planning purposes, and
will help them avoid a “one-size-fits-
all” approach to global strategy.
reuters
91www.london.edu/bsr BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW
Voices Farid Muna