AIMA 35th NMC: Experts advice on developing a global mindset

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
July 24, 2016
All India Management Association (AIMA) is holding its 35th National Management Convention (NMC) on September 30 & October 1, 2008 in Mumbai.

The second session of the day one was on the theme: Developing a Global Mindset. 

The session was chaired by Mr Sudhir Jalan. The other speakers were Mr Jeffrey Watts, Partner, deloitte Tohmatsu, Japan; Ms Anne Nemer, Asst. dean & ED, Univ of Pittsburgh and Mr D Sivakumar, MD Nokia. 

In his opening remarks, Mr. Jalan said that good leaders need to have understanding of Global practices as these practices across the globe are transforming us. 

Mr Jeffrey Watts defined the global mindset as "ability and willingness of managers to think, act and transcend boundaries on a global scale. It is the understanding the nuisances of the working style and thinking of various countries, companies and cultures." 

Mr. Watts said that Global Mindset depends on the following three points:

-          Mindset of leaderships
-          Cross border experiences of the employees
-          Maturity levels of the organizations to support global mindset. 

Ms Anne Nemer commented, "In this globalized world, professionals will be born at one place, grow-up in another, live in some different place and work in altogether different location. A global manager is expected to see beyond the surface while being incisive in their approach, they need to have open mindset to approach problems. The global manager needs to find opportunities to innovate through ideas."

Mr Sivakumar began his talks with making clear understanding of the outdated thinking on the definition of global mindset. He pointed out the two major fallacies in approaching global mindset are – 'Legacy thinking' and the 'reward thinking'. Legacy thinking comes from making decisions based on three powers – US, Europe and Japan; they were economic power by their own, and not because of global mindset. Reward thinking is the thinking which is aligned to the thinking of Head office, even if the office is based out of Atlanta, where people have no idea of local challenges. 

Mr Sivakumar said that the global mindset started to set-in with the three major milestones:

-          Year 1989: Fall of iron curtains, where governments took the back stage and let the private organization to take the economic growth further
-          Year 1992: Creation of European Union, that led to standardization of products across Europe and free movement of employees and hence more exposed, open mindset man-power.
-          Year 1995: Birth of world trade organization, which forced countries to be globally competitive, while opening up to the challenges and opportunities offered by the new set of rules. 

Mr Shivakumar said that if India has to be competitive on a global scale, it needs to focus on following issues:

-          Performance
-          Thinking about the future
-          Diversity at work place, in terms of education and experiences
-          Teamwork; moving from 'I' to 'WE'
-          Move away from the hierarchy thinking 
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