WOULD it be a good idea to measure a company’s leadership skill and competitiveness by its executives? Well, that’s what IMD Business School’s World Competitiveness director Arturo Bris intends to publish next year after the release of the IMD World Talent Report 2015.
He’s referring to the middle executive position, of which 10,000 have already responded to IMD’s questionnaire, and the results according to countries will be published together with the IMD World Talent Report 2016.
Explaining the motives for the publication, Bris stressed to the media: “It’s a kind of a leadership index. We want to promote this to be a tool for governments for reform. This report, together with the new category, can be a policy tool to help governments and companies.”
This is in line with efforts to get a picture of talent and talent management in this region, so that governments will have a guide to take the next step.
Bris expressed his admiration for the Southeast Asian governments, which on the whole, emphasised education and talent as a major pillar in policy, which is not the case in Europe, including his country, Spain, despite only Singapore making it to the top-10 in the IMD World Talent Report this year.
“Also, I believe that the image of a country abroad plays a part,” said Bris, who is of the opinion that this helps foreigners frame their perception, and if it is positive, can help that particular country’s competitiveness.
In the latest IMD World Talent Report, only Singapore has risen up the standings, with Thailand still on 34th, with Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia moving down the list. The ranking is structured according to investment and development, appeal and readiness.
“Such a comprehensive set of criteria enables us to observe how countries perform in terms of sustaining their talent pool,” said Bris during IMD’s Orchestrating Winning Performance (OWP) programme on Nov 16 to 20 in Singapore.
In Malaysia’s case, despite the slippage to 15th position this year (from 5th in 2014), the country still did well in certain individual categories. We are in sixth place out of 61 countries in terms of apprenticeship by scoring 6.55; 4th in employee training (7.33); fifth in science achievement in schools (6.91); in the top 10 in level of worker motivation (7.08); 9th placing in international experience of senior managers (6.62); and close to the top in ability to attract foreign highly skilled people (7.05); 14th in health infrastructure (7.53); and placed 17th in university education.
Overall measurement standings in terms of investment and development for this year, Malaysia is placed 13th; 19th for appeal; while in terms of readiness, 16th. For Malaysia, it is no surprise that the country suffered in the rankings, as the economy was affected by the oil price dip that affected the budget.
The latest IMD World Talent Report ranked Northern Europe as the best business talent hotspots in the world, with Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany and Belgium, all featuring in the top 10.
However, despite the slip in rankings, it must be said that Malaysia has risen steadily over the years to reach the highest position of 5th place last year and we do have the ability to again rise up, as economic factors converge for positive development, one of which is the coming Asean Community, which is slated to put more than 600 million people in a single market.
Bris agreed and predicted that Malaysia will once again rise up the list in the near future, taking into account internal and external factors which continue to be positive.
One of which is the combined population of Asean, at 8.8 per cent of the world’s population. This year, Asean’s combined nominal gross domestic product (GDP) had grown to more than US$2.6 trillion (RM10.94 trillion).
It would rank as the seventh largest economy in the world, behind the United States, China, Japan, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, if Asean were a single economic bloc.
With that in mind, Southeast Asia needs a talent pool that can compete with the ever changing needs of the environment, whether locally or regionally. Easier said than done. But, companies in this region and outside need to find them, and fast, said Margaret Cording, regional director for IMD in South East Asia.
“This region has a talent deficit...in middle and upper management,” she said, while pointing out that there is zero Asian representation at multinationals at the regional and global level, and so, it’s no surprise that people are asking — where are the Asian leaders?
Some of it is because of companies’ tendency of being too slow in moving up their executives, especially if it’s a family-owned business, while another reason would be cultural differences at a multinational, where decision-makers are foreigners.
For years, multinationals have been saying it is difficult to promote people here.
“I think it’s partly cultural,” she said, using the analogy “all roads lead to Rome, but away from Rome, Romans look for Romans” as another reason why that is so.
Perhaps, aside from measuring the leadership skill of the region’s executives, Bris would do well to also propose measures on how to change this mindset, too, so as to help propel them and local executives in the right direction for the coming years.
The writer is the Features/Op-Ed editor at Berita Harian