Missing - the next generation of business leaders
Where are tomorrow's business leaders? According to a major new study from IBM, it's a question three fourths of today's human resource executives have trouble answering. And it's a worldwide problem stemming in part from the retirement of experienced leaders at a time when there's explosive growth and competition in emerging markets.
Those same human resource execs are also scratching their heads about finding and developing skilled experts, in the right places, with know-how that's aligned with their organization's strategic direction.
The findings highlight some pretty huge question marks facing companies, questions that can impact plans for growth and globalization. Given the explosive growth in emerging markets, and the retirement of experienced personnel in more mature economies, the study suggests that companies are placing their growth strategies at risk if they cannot identify and develop the next generation of leaders.
The Global Human Capital Study titled "Unlocking the DNA of the Adaptable Workforce" was developed by IBM Global Business Services' Human Capital Management practice and the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV), with assistance from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
More than 400 human resource executives from 40 countries took part in a structured interview, many of them face-to-face, designed to capture insights on the subject of workforce transformation. Participants represent private, public and not-for-profit organizations across a variety of industries and geographic locations. They ranged in size from less than 1,000 employees to more than 50,000. Corresponding revenues for these organizations ran from less than US$500 million to over US$25 billion.
The study shows that leadership issues are surfacing worldwide, with organizations in every corner of the globe being impacted. Companies in the Asia Pacific region are most concerned with their ability to develop future leaders (88 percent); followed by Latin America (74 percent); Europe, Middle East and Africa, (74 percent); Japan (73 percent) and North America (69 percent).
"In today's business environment, organizations worldwide need to have a pipeline of future leaders who can deliver on today's commitments, drive workforce and enterprise transformation, and lay the groundwork for future growth," said Tim Ringo, Global Leader, Human Capital Management, IBM Global Business Services. "Effective leadership not only guides individuals through turbulent business conditions, but creates a climate that attracts and retains high performers, who will be in increasingly short supply in the future."
The study identified a number of challenges:
- Retirement of current leaders and business professionals, including those with needed skills
- Bridging the generation gap, so that valued experience and knowledge is passed on to younger employees
- Accurate forecasting what skills will be needed in the future - and where they'll be needed
- Developing critical concentrations of skill and talent from within the organization
- Developing leaders by exposure to multiple geographies and business units
- Competing for talent that's in demand by growing companies everywhere
- Breaking down corporate "silos" to encourage collaboration and innovation
- Retaining the people who can contribute to an organization's success
"The ability of an organization to look ahead and identify the skills it will need in the future, and then rapidly develop a critical mass of individuals with those skills in a cost-effective manner, will be a core competency for those companies looking to compete in the globally integrated world," said IBM's Randy MacDonald, Senior Vice President of Human Resources.
You can read more details of the study at www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/22471.wss.
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