The India Way: New Frontiers of Leadership

I just finished reading an article on Forbes.com by Karl Moore.  He interviewed Michael Useem from the Wharton School about his book co-authored with Peter Capelli, Habir Singh,  and Jitendra Singh.  I just ordered the book

What stood out for me in the interview were these four distinctions of Indian Companies

Number one, more inclined to be in a (they call it) holistic engagement with their employee’s: they focus on employees. To put that in a sentence, their employee’s are assets and not a cost.

Number two; Indian companies are exceptionally good at being adaptable to the most trying of conditions. Perhaps this has something to do with number one??

Number three; Indian companies are coming up with pretty remarkable, what you might call, value propositions: an automobile for $2500, cell phone service for less than a penny per minute.

Number four, and this may be the most distinctive of all; Indian companies put a huge emphasis not on shareholder value but on community, on country, and on family.

Are we doing this here in the US?  I think in pockets!  As the new generation of leaders begin to emerge here at home their idealistic notions concerning the content covered in the above four distinctions will be challenged by the usual pressure for quarterly results. However, with that in mind incremental changes have already begun to move in this direction under the leadership of the the new generation of leaders at companies like Google, Zynga, and Zappos.

Keep the momentum going young leaders!

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