One topic that rarely fails to surface when speaking with business or HR leaders at both Japanese as well as foreign-capital companies in Japan is that of developing global talent. Among foreign-capital firms, the war for global talent has never been more fierce. Truly globally-minded and globally-capable Japanese leaders remain scarce, with many firms resorting to hiring foreigners or compromising on Japanese language skills when roles require international stakeholder management. For Japanese corporations, the challenge of building a sufficient bench of global talent remains a real barrier to sustainable future international growth. Despite years of investment into global talent acquisition and development, many seem stuck with antiquated HR policies and processes that make it difficult to attract or retain the right people. Overall, with Japan's fast-declining working-age population, and increasing competitiveness from other companies the world over, many predict that if Japan doesn't find a solution to its global talent problem soon, Japan Inc. will slowly but surely go out of business.
Having said that, the onus for developing the next generation of Japanese global talent cannot be placed on businesses alone. The process of leader development starts well before people enter the workplace. Many leadership experts assert that our leadership potential is more or less hardwired in us by our early-to-mid twenties. As such, a consolidated and coordinated effort to cultivate and nurture global leader potential needs to start much earlier on - during adolescence, and even childhood. This effort should begin with parents, families, teachers, sports clubs, schools, universities, and other related stakeholders and associations. Ideally, by the time young people enter the workforce, many should arrive "primed" as future global talent, and hungry for the next phase of their development. In Japan, as things stand, recent statistics indicate a trend moving in the other direction. Japanese youth express less interest in exploring the world, and are instead more inclined to remain within the comfort and familiarity of their homeland.
Unfortunately, research into global leader development in Japan is non-existent. Currently, there is no clear evidence in the literature to inform well-intentioned parents or businesses alike on practical steps they can take to effectively prepare young people as future "global ambassadors". My co-researcher, Professor Kimura of Chuo University, and I therefore decided to get the ball moving by initiating our own study exploring the developmental pathways of Japanese global leaders. Our paper on early life experiences as determinants of global leader emergence was published in the Journal of Global Management earlier this year. In it, we explain why experience trumps all - including getting the top grades or going to the best schools - when it comes to developing global leader potential early on in life. We identify seven interrelated early life experiences that worked together to play a particularly important role in the development and emergence of one group of Japanese global leaders - 25 general managers from prominent global consumer brands in Japan - which can be summarized as follows:
1. Active participation in competitive sports and organized activities
2. Actively building diverse social relationships
3. Gaining the support of role models and mentors
4. Experiencing at least one year of international exposure before the age of 25
5. Habitually setting and pursuing clear personal goals
6. Participating in a wide range of extracurricular activities and interests at university
7. Gaining a diverse range of professional experience during the first ten years of one's career
If you're interested in learning more, you can download the full paper here. Although this is just a small study with its flaws and limitations, it is nevertheless a start. Our intention is not to tell parents or companies in Japan how to develop future global leaders. We simply seek to contribute to an evidence-based dialogue on the topic. Our interest is less about producing more global Japanese CEOs (although that would be great), and more about finding ways to empower more young people in Japan with a genuine sense of excitement, confidence, and anticipation when it comes to the individual and collective roles they could be playing as future representatives and ambassadors for their country. Importantly, the seven areas of experience highlighted in our study are accessible to all, regardless of your walk of life. In other words, global leadership is a pathway that should be seen as being open to anyone and everyone, and not just the privileged few.
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