Four Steps To Evolve From A Regional To A Global Center Leader
From support centers to centers of excellence and innovation, global centers (a subsidiary of a multinational corporation based in the United States or Europe in a lower-cost country such as India, the Philippines or Romania) have evolved and proven their resilience during the pandemic. How about their leaders, though? Have they evolved as far and as successfully? Let’s have a look at the expectations that MNCs have of their global center leaders and how well these expectations are met.
Global centers started out as development and support centers for MNCs. Straightforward jobs were outsourced to lower-cost regions while creativity and innovation remained at headquarters. As global centers grew, more and more of them evolved into centers of excellence with a focus on research and development, product development and design. Banking, financial services and insurance companies and professional services firms started expanding the scope to cover research, underwriting and consulting.
Recently, since Covid-19 forced a lot of businesses to start or accelerate their digital transformation, some global centers have started playing a role in facilitating these changes globally. These pioneering centers have acquired talent in emerging technologies such as data analytics, artificial intelligence, the cloud, blockchain and cybersecurity. This rings in a new age of value addition in global centers and makes global centers more attractive to so-called unicorns and other rapid-growth businesses. Gojek, Uber and Grab are examples of unicorns that have Global Centers in India.
In my coaching practice, I have identified four steps to help regional leaders transform into a global center leader:
1. Think locally but, more importantly, globally
Global centers are part of MNCs and as such must have a global perspective combined with local knowledge, not just of their own country but also the other countries where the respective MNC has a strong presence. A global center leader needs to think strategically when making decisions on which offices to allocate projects to, which locations to grow, etc. The issue at the moment is that global center leaders often feel they are competing with other locations.
It is time to think on a more global scale about what is best for the organization as a whole. Leaders need to prove they are thinking strategically and holistically. They need to show their understanding of the overall organizational health of the company and where/how they can contribute to improving that. They need to leave behind the mindset of pushing their own people and their location forward to instead look objectively at where the best opportunities lie for the organization as a whole. This requires them to network with their colleagues in other locations and to initiate collaboration wherever it might be beneficial.
2. Contribute at a strategic level
What does this look like on a practical level? It means going beyond delivering projects on time, at lower cost, faster and with higher quality—that is the baseline for global centers these days. Global center leaders are expected to go beyond the old "tell me what to do and I’ll do it better than any other center/team/person."
Nowadays the expectation is that global centers contribute to the future direction of the company, that they earn their seat at the table by going beyond problem-solving, that they take a more proactive role. Even MNCs want to create more agile work environments these days. Digital transformation is a fast-paced field where constant innovation is happening and there are countless opportunities for pioneering Global Centers to forge new paths. Guided by questions like “Where will the next five-year growth come from?” leaders can take the opportunity to anticipate, think ahead and contribute to shaping the future of the company.
3. Move from cost arbitrage to business growth
In order to execute that move successfully and develop a more entrepreneurial mindset, leaders need to strive to deeply understand their customers’ needs and pain points. Who is your ideal customer? What are they struggling with? What obstacles are they encountering when they want to engage with your product or service?
Leaders can start their exploration in their local market, participate more, join the relevant conversations, meet their customers and competitors. Then, expand into the international market.
Another opportunity is to keep abreast with the business, i.e., stay connected across sales, services, product management and engineering—locally and globally. Global center leaders need to move not only with the times but ahead of the times to stay relevant. What is the next emerging trend? How can you be one of the pioneers of it?
4. Expand your sphere of influence
Traditionally, global centers have promoted generalists. They have shied away from too much specialization so that employees could easily be deployed on a variety of projects. Once leaders get to a certain level, this is no longer sufficient. They need to supplement their generalist skills with some deep expertise, especially in strategic areas.
Being an industry insider and having a good overview of global trends and developments in your niche are vital for the role. What regional and global trends are there in your industry? Where is the innovation happening?
Combined with essential soft skills like networking and executive presence, this ensures they have the ear of the right people, allowing them to consult internally on various strategic matters and to get involved at the executive level. This, in turn, helps them build their reputation and thus their global influence, creating impact beyond their immediate function—a vital step toward professional growth opportunities.
Global center leaders are sitting on a potential gold mine, especially as the pandemic has not only changed the global workplace landscape but has also proven the resilience of global centers. If leaders understand how to leverage their advantage and onboard the right talent to evolve to the next level, they can grow their global centers exponentially.
This article was first published on Forbes.