“Right Quarterly” is published every quarter by Right Management, providing relevant perspectives on current challenges business leaders face in optimizing the performance of their workforce. We are pleased to share our latest edition of Right Quarterly on the important aspects that encompasses both talent management and career management: having a Global Mindset.

1. Right Quarterly
THE
Fourth Quarter 2013
Culture
Collaboration
Agility
VUCA
Global Mindset

2. ManpowerGroup at a Glance…
Nearly 3,500 offices across
80 countries around the
world
Interviewed 12 million
people in 2012 and
connected 4 million to
meaningful work
USD 21 Billion revenue in 2012
with over 85% generated
i h
d
outside the U.S.
Over 30,000
employees
l
across brands
Largest global vendorneutral MSP provider
p
Over 400,000 clients
ranging from SMB’s to
Global F t
Gl b l Fortune 100
companies
The world’s largest IT
professional resourcing
f
i
l
i
firm
Nearly 70,000 people
placed in permanent
roles each year
Global leader in
Recruitment Process
Outsourcing
The world’s largest
outplacement firm

3. EDITORIAL & FOREWORD
02
by Chaitali Mukherjee
RESEARCH STUDY
Leading across borders
by Andy Lowe
04
Client Reference Story
Driving cultural alignment
by Priyanka Jaitly Babbar
08
POINT OF VIEW ARTICLE
A perspective on global mindset in Japan
by Hiroyuki Izutsu
12
A glocal country manager:
a must for a global organization
by Ronnie Tan and Ric Roi
16
Copy Editor
Tuhina Panda
Layout & Design Editor
Ritesh Hellan
For a copy of ‘The Right Quarterly’, write to us at
right.quarterly@right.com
GLOBAL MINDSET
1

4. Editorial & Foreword
by Chaitali Mukherjee
Country Manager - Right Management India
With 2013 having come to a close, the time
to reflect is upon us. We look back at the year
gone by and want to know if the journey was
worth it. We’ve achieved success across many
initiatives, learnt new things, made mistakes
and helped others in their time of need. But
the biggest reflection which we all hope to
have is whether any of our actions helped
build our own capabilities and have pushed
the organization’s business ahead. Did we
break new boundaries? Did we challenge our
fears? Did we set new benchmarks vis-à-vis
the goals we had set at the start of the year?
We also have the opportunity to define a new
plan for the next year which will help us take
the business to a level higher. A clear objective
of many companies continues to be becoming
more global in their outlook and approach,
irrespective of being a player in the domestic
market or one with operations in multiple
countries. Even in today’s ‘flat world’ very few
companies can say that they are truly global.
In our earlier edition of the Right Quarterly,
we spoke about Talent Assessment with a
clear focus on exploring how this space has
been redefined is the past few years. For our
last edition of 2013, we wanted to talk about
an important aspect that encompasses both
talent management and career management:
having a Global Mindset. A Global Mindset
could be defined as ‘having agility of mind to
learn/adapt to diverse cultures and markets,
and use that understanding to enable
collaboration and bring about synergy across
teams, organizations, businesses and cultures.’
Over the past decade or more, building a
pipeline of global leaders has become a
priority for most organizations. Even after
expanding their operations across multiple
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countries, a key issue that remains is bringing
about cultural alignment.
We start this edition with an article on
Leading across borders, which talks
about how leadership practices differ across
countries and what is the typical approach to
building cross-national teams. But how can
one manage multicultural, multi-national,
diverse teams unless you are an expert in the
practices of each of those regions? Through
a recent interview with David Ringwood (VP
Client Development) from Management
Research Group®, our strategic partners, we
have the opportunity to share with you key
highlights from their research on leadership
and management practices of 96,000 leaders
in 26 countries, 8000 organizations, and 30
industries over a 10 year period. We hope this
gives you some interesting insights into how to
build a global organization and what to focus
on when cultivating a global mindset in your
employees.
The second article on Driving cultural
alignment is a client reference story from a
recently concluded project in India on bringing
about an alignment of culture and global
work practices. The client is in the process
of an organization transformation exercise,
where the global organization has recently
acquired an Indian business. The first objective
in ensuring the alignment was to familiarize
and align the Indian leadership team with the
work practices of the larger company. The
Right Management India team delivered a
robust solution, starting off with a diagnostic
to identify the working style gaps that existed.
The engagement was designed to help bridge
these gaps by providing clarity of expectation

5. for the Indian leadership team, with a detailed
plan on how they can work on their individual
styles as well.
between the local and global work practices,
and also build the team’s capabilities to allow
them to pursue possible global opportunities.
But what does it take to build a global mindset
for an entire country? How can organizations
be global if the home country’s culture
and policies don’t support the same? “A
perspective on global mindset in Japan”
is a very insightful and thought provoking
piece on how Japan’s increasingly ageing
working population is becoming more and
more misaligned with global work practices.
Though the cultural alignment within Japan is
very strong, to allow its people and businesses
to reach higher benchmarks it will need to
encourage its younger workforce to be more
aware of global practices, gain experience
through global opportunities and apply their
learning to businesses in the home country.
With boundaries based on language and
culture slowly disappearing across the world,
it is even more important for leaders across
nations to talk with a more aligned mindset.
Developing capabilities which can allow your
employees to understand business, markets,
products and services more universally can
not only allow them to feel engaged, but also
deliver more business impact. It should be the
objective of every business to grow not just
across different markets, but also make an
impact at the regional level by contributing to
the local economies. This can only be achieved
by cultivating a global mindset in our future
leaders, no matter which region, industry or
function they are in!
If you want your organization to adopt
a more global approach and be aligned
across different regions, it is for certain that
the right leadership is needed to guide the
way forward. In our final article “A glocal
country manager: a must for any global
organization” we explore the traits of a
country manager, and the various aspects
one must look at when hiring one. Where
do you start? Should you promote someone
internally? Hire an expat with global
experience? Or just get a good business leader
who can stabilize the business quickly once
the previous leader has left? Can a leader from
another region be considered? The options
may be many, but the outcome has to be the
same – finding a leader who can grow the
domestic market, ensure that the region is
visible at the global level, bring alignment
Stepping into 2014, we wish you a very happy
and prosperous new year! It is never too late to
make the whole world your stage.
- Chaitali Mukherjee
GLOBAL MINDSET
3

6. Research Study
Leading across borders
Does Leadership Differ
Significantly by Country?
As the global leader in talent and career
management workforce solutions, we
know only too well that the world of work
is experiencing unprecedented levels of
change. For one, technology is connecting
people in a way unimagined even 10 years
ago. This gives organizations the opportunity
to unleash talent, innovation and team work
like never before. But how does one lead
across this geographically dispersed, multinational, multi-generational, multi-cultural
world of ours? As part of ManpowerGroup
we operate in 88 countries and we have a
clear point-of-view that developing leaders
to lead across borders and cultures is critical
for many organizations. But what does it
take to manage multicultural, multi-national,
diverse teams?
I put a similar question to our strategic
partners at Management Research Group®
David Ringwood (VP Client Development)
shared some fascinating research they
conducted recently comparing the
leadership practices of 96,000 leaders in 26
countries. David summarises their research
for us.
“We found common leadership practices
do vary substantially by country. In
particular, leaders and managers differed
significantly in their approach to problem
solving, initiating action, managing change,
and building teams. Understanding these
differences is an important component in
successful leadership across geographic
boundaries”
The Research
Understanding how individuals in other
cultures approach the task of leadership
and management is a key first step in
building mutually effective and satisfying
4
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interactions throughout the organization.
This is especially important for leaders
given the task of building effective crossnational teams. Even in cases in which the
team exists entirely within one country, the
increase of labour migration makes it likely
that there will still be individuals from more
than one culture in the mix.
Right Management has a strategic
partnership with Management Research
Group (MRG) who’s mission is to provide
their partners with assessment tools that can
be used for leadership and organizational
development across the globe. In this
recent investigation of country differences in
leadership, MRG studied the leadership and
management practices of 96,000 leaders
in 26 countries, 8000 organizations, and 30
industries over a 10 year period. The data
is draw from the Leadership Effectiveness
Analysis™ (LEA), a broadly descriptive
assessment describing those fundamental
management and leadership practices and
behaviours most commonly found in a wide
range of organsiation settings and cultures.
Specifically, the LEA measures twenty-two
leadership practices in six functional areas:
Creating a Vision, Developing Followership,
Implementing the Vision, Following Through,
Achieving Results, and Team Playing (see
Reference 1.1).
As MRG explains; the underlying LEA model
is descriptive rather than prescriptive. The
assessment describes behaviours and
practices, rather than competencies per se.
The model assumes that the effectiveness
of any specific leadership practice depends
on the context in which it occurs; the
broader culture, the organizational culture,
the managerial role, unique aspects of the
situation, and the individual characteristics
(e.g., personality, ability) of the manager
and the people he or she works with.
Additionally, the model assumes that each

7. Reference 1.1
Functional Areas
Critical Behaviours
Creating a Vision
Traditional; Innovative; Technical; Self; Strategic
Developing Followers
Persuasive; Outgoing; Excitement; Restraint
Implementing the Vision
Structuring; Tactical; Communication; Delegation
Following Through
Control; Feedback
Achieving Results
Management Focus; Dominant; Production
Team Playing
Cooperation; Consensual; Authority; Empathy
leadership practice or behaviour has assets
and liabilities, with effectiveness again
depending on the specific context.
The leadership practices included in the LEA
model describe important aspects of the
management/leadership role, independent
of time and culture. While the emphasis
on some behaviours may wax or wane
according to leadership fads, the set of
practices does not vary significantly. For
example, transformational leadership is seen
to be strongly correlated a combination
of Persuasive, Excitement, Management
Focus, Communication, Consensual, and low
Restraint. Other types of leadership would
be described by a different combination and
emphasis of practices albeit the underlying
leadership practices exist to varying degrees
in most managerial settings. As David
Ringwood explains, “Here we set out to see
how these may differ by country”.
Findings
Not unsurprisingly leadership practices
were found to vary widely by country. One
approach to describing common similarities
and differences among countries is cluster
analysis. In the current context, cluster
analysis was used to group countries into
categories (called clusters) so that countries
Reference 1.2 Similarities among countries based on leadership practices.
Countries with the same circles are more similar to each other than they are to countries
outside their circles. Results are based on hierarchical clustering.
Denmark
Netherlands
Russion
Federation
United
Kingdom
Ireland
Germany
Sweden
China
Mexico
Singapore
Canada
United
States
Australia
New Zealand
Spain
France
Columbia
Peru
Finland
India
South Africa
Italy
Brazil
Hong Kong
Belgium
Switzerland
GLOBAL MINDSET
5

8. within a cluster are more similar to each
other than they are to countries in other
clusters. The results are summarized in
Reference 1.2
Countries that are within the same circles
tend to be more similar to each other than
they are to countries outside these circles.
For example, Canada and the United States
are similar, as is Australia and New Zealand.
All four countries are more similar to each
other than they are to Singapore. All five
countries are more similar to each other
than they are to Denmark, and so on.
Another way of presenting this data, which
can be useful to help individuals leaders
understand how practices may be different,
is to present the practices data relative
to one’s own country of origin, otherwise
known as the median euclidian distance
from the reference country. It is important
to note that the goal of cross cultural
research is not to promote stereotypes
but to develop an understanding that
norms vary across the globe, although
leaders within countries obviously differ
from each other with regard to approach
and emphasis. The purpose of the current
research to assess the importance of
country differences in understanding the
myriad ways human beings approach
the role of leader. It can help to identify
possible points of miscommunication and
misunderstanding.
In Reference 1.3, the ‘distance’ from
reference country, in this case USA is
presented in descending order, such that
Canada and New Zealand are seen to differ
less in overall leadership practices (median
score) than say Netherlands or China,
relative to USA.
In order to understand differences further
the data can be cut country by country and
reveals some fascinating differences.
Leadership profiles between two countries
can differ markedly. Take a comparsion
between the United Kingdom and South
Africa for example where very large
differences (20-30 percentile points) are
observed with regard to Strategic, Outgoing,
Production, and Cooperation. Compared
with the United Kingdom, leaders in South
Africa are more likely to emphasize the
importance of analyzing the current and
6
THE RIGHT QUARTERLY
Reference 1.3 Leadership Differences
with US
Netherlands
Sweden
Germany
Denmark
France
South Africa
Peru
Spain
Russian Federation
Finland
China
Colombia
Switzerland
Mexico
Italy
Belgium
India
Brazil
Hong Kong
Ireland
Singapore
United Kingdom
New Zealand
Australia
Canada
0
20
40
60
80
future impact of decisions (Strategic), and
leading by setting and pushing to meet
aggressive goals (Production). Compared
with South African leaders, leaders in the
United Kingdom are more likely to lead in
an extroverted, informal, and gregarious
manner (Outgoing) and accommodate to
the needs and interests of others in order to
obtain organizational goals (Cooperation).
While there is insufficient space to present
the similarities and differences among all
26 countries on each leadership practice,
we hope that this short article has piqued
your interest. There is ample evidence
that leaders differ in their fundamental
behaviours by geographic region, and
an understanding of these differences is

9. important for organizations intending to
work effectively in global environments.
Conclusions
MRG and Right Management’s point of view
is that there is no one single right or best
way to lead. Effective leadership depends
on the context — the characteristics of the
situation, the task, and the people involved.
Effective leaders and managers are aware
of these components and are able to meld
their needs with the diverse needs and
expectations of others to achieve desirable
results. Understanding how others operate
in business settings is key to being able to
present one’s ideas and goals in a manner
that they will understand and accept.
Understanding differences can help a leader
to forge a working relationship with others
that is comfortable and mutually beneficial.
Finally, developing sensitivity to the different
leadership approaches that others use can
help build a team of individuals who benefit
and gain strength from their diversity.
Increasing globalization and diverse
workforces are a fact of life. In order to
succeed, managers must work effectively
with individuals from many countries —
individuals who have different backgrounds,
beliefs, experiences, and approaches and
responses to leadership. The challenge
for managers is to identify how these
differences can strengthen their teams and
organizations, and to adopt approaches
that reduce resistance or misunderstanding
and forge stronger and mutually beneficial
working relationships.
MRG has some of the largest global
normative databases available — a vast
repository of data describing the behaviours
and motivations of hundreds of thousands of
individuals, including executives, managers,
salespeople, and others in more than 5,000
organizations worldwide.
by Andy Lowe
Principal Consultant
Australia
GLOBAL MINDSET
7

10. Client Reference Story
Driving cultural alignment
Context
The client is a global leader in performance
materials and chemistries – sophisticated
products engineered to enable advances
in research and laboratory processes,
and provide an unmatched foundation of
chemical quality, purity and consistency
to support innovation and creation of next
generation products and processes.
At present, they are in the middle of an
organizational transformation. Formerly
an Indian company, they now represent
the powerful combination of a global
organization’s quality systems and
production expertise with their unmatched
indigenous knowledge of the India region’s
dynamic and expanding market – all backed
by the shared commitment to help their
customers innovate with confidence and
perform without compromise.
Consequently, the working culture of
the organization in India is undergoing a
significant change. The Indian leadership
which has so far focused on independently
running the Indian market, now reports into
their respective offices in US and Europe.
Since there is increased interaction between
the Indian and international counterparts,
it was felt that there is a need to enhance
the cultural sensitivity of the Indian
Leadership Team, and make them more
familiar and aware of the western way of
working. Also, as the global headquarters
of the organization are in Pennsylvania,
8
THE RIGHT QUARTERLY
the focus of the engagement was largely
towards orienting the India leadership to the
American work culture.
Recommended Solution
To understand the situation in greater detail,
Right Management conducted a detailed
Diagnostic study which included oneon-one conversations with each of the
members of the India Leadership Team
and also their reporting manager based
in the USA or Europe. The purpose of the
conversations was to understand the specific
issues, the expectations from the concerned
leaders and their current leadership style
and perceptions. The following were the key
issues that emerged from the diagnostics:
• The Indian team was by and large
perceived to be over-committing and
under-delivering
• It was felt that they could not, or would
not be direct and share what they were
truly thinking, occasionally leaving their
global counter-parts in a confused state
• The global team felt that the India team
had to think global, and not just limit
themselves to operating like a small and
independent Indian organization
• From the perspective of the Indian team,
they felt their roles had shrunk with all
decision-making powers vested with the
global team. What they had to realize was
that they were familiar with the Indian
market much more than the global team,

11. Reference 2.1 Recommended Solution
Diagnostics
Sensitization
Workshop
Coaching
One-on-one
interviews
Realizing the
differences
Personalized
Coaching
Online
Questionnaires
Respecting the
differences
Individual
Development
Plans
Reconciling the
differences
Regular
Progress
Reviews
and therefore, had a huge role to play in
terms of influencing the global team in
the right direction.
Therefore, there was an urgent need for
the India leadership team to align with the
global way of working and be more sensitive
to the cultural differences between India and
the United States of America, so as to work
better with their global counterparts.
The leaders also undertook a psychometric
tool, the Birkman Profile, along with a 360
degree feedback survey to enhance self
awareness about their personal leadership
style.
Based on the inputs we received from the
diagnostics, we designed a 1-day Culture
Sensitization Workshop with the following
objectives:
• To learn and practice ways to overcome
the cultural gap in order to work more
effectively
It was considered important to complement
the learning from the workshop with more
focused inputs to enhance current individual
performance, and also to gauge and work
on the readiness for the next level. Therefore,
we followed up the workshop with three
one-on-one Executive Coaching sessions.
Benefits to the Client
Shared here are some benefits which the
client experienced through the process:
• Clarity on the expectations their global
counterparts have from them as India
leaders
• Better understanding of their individual
personality and leadership style
• To understand the importance of India in
the Client’s global context
• Enhanced awareness and appreciation of
the American culture
• To understand the cultural differences
between India and the USA
• Constant support and hand-holding in
their effort to bridge the gap between
expected and demonstrated behavior
• To experience how cultural differences
affect personal and professional
relationships
In a nutshell, in addition to creating
awareness of the American culture, this
GLOBAL MINDSET
9

12. Reference 2.2 Overview of the Process & Deliverables
Expected Outcome
Intervention
Diagnostics
Workshop Design and Key Areas of Concern
Workshop
Basic overview of various working cultures, sensitization
towards cross cultural dynamics
Coaching
Intervention 1
Setting expectations, creating IDP, getting commitment
Coaching
Intervention 2
Review 1 and course correction (if required)
Coaching
Intervention 3
Final review, next steps
intervention has tried to help the Indian
leadership team be more open and
forthcoming towards other cultures and
perspectives which may be very different
from the typical Indian way of looking at
things.
Client Feedback
The 1-day Culture Sensitization Workshop
was received exceptionally well by the
participants, with an average feedback score
of 4.6 out of 5. The leaders specifically
thought that the examples and analogies
shared were extremely relevant to them, and
felt prepared to apply learnings from the
workshop at work.
Similarly, the leaders have established an
excellent rapport with the coach, so much so
that the relationship now is more personal
than being restricted to professional matters.
10
THE RIGHT QUARTERLY
Many a times learning inputs provided
are not seen to translate into behavioural
changes. However, a focused intervention
like this, touches upon two of the 4Es we
propagate – Education and Exposure.
Learning inputs were provided through the
1-day Cultural Sensitization workshop, and
those were followed up by specific one-onone guidance by an experienced executive
coach through a series of three coaching
sessions. The experience was wholesome
for the client because through the coaching
sessions, we could reinforce the desired
behavior and also take stock of the progress
made by the participants in adopting the
same. Having said that, culture as we all
know, is a vast topic, and is deeply ingrained
in the psyche of an individual. Therefore, it
needs to be constantly worked upon in order
to bring about significant and prominent
change.

13. Participant feedback
“
I understood more about the culture and typical
behaviors of our American colleagues which was very
important.
The workshop was well designed and we feel
equipped to appreciate and handle the cultural
differences between India and the USA.
”
All the key messages were captured perfectly through
the one day program.
by Priyanka Jaitly Babbar
Project Leader
India
GLOBAL MINDSET
11

14. Point of View Article
A perspective
on global mindset
in Japan
30% less students learning
outside japan in six years
First, let me start by defining “global
mindset” as “a willingness to communicate,
think and act beyond national or regional
boundaries”. As a Japanese person, I am sad
to report that Japan has been described as
hesitant about accepting a global mindset,
especially when compared with other
rapidly developing Asian countries. Will
the situation in Japan improve? I am not
optimistic. Below I will consider why this is
a frequent subject of discussion and explain
the reasons for my opinion.
Let me start with an indicative trend, the
recent drop in the number of Japanese
students ilearning outside Japan (OECD
”Education at a Glance”, 2010). For a time
Japanese studying abroad saw a dramatic
increase, going from 14,297 in 1986 to
82,945 in 2004, a 580% increase in less
than two decades. Since then however,
there has been a decline to 58,060 in 2010,
a 30% decrease against 2004. This recent
drop has been frequently cited in Japan as
an indicator of the rapid decrease in young
Japanese people interested in developing a
global mindset.
Many people in Japan (including me) are of
the opinion that there is strong correlation
between the level of global mindset as a
country and the number of its students
12
THE RIGHT QUARTERLY
studying abroad. Unlike many other
countries, Japan is highly homogeneous and
has a large population using its own unique
language. This means that linguistically
Japan has a “critical mass” that results
in most information being available to
most people in Japanese, making foreign
language ability unnecessary for many.
However, this means that most news
disseminated in Japan is filtered through
Japanese points of view, which is sometimes
significantly skewed away from the global
standard. For this reason, I believe Japan is
one of the countries of the world that still
sustains a very unique culture, something
which has many positives but perhaps
as many negatives. The difficulty facing
the younger Japanese generations is
obvious; can they contribute and compete
commensurately without being exposed to
global culture?
To learn a global mindset within highly
homogeneous Japan is difficult. Thus, it is
important for Japan to have more students
going abroad to learn. That is why I believe
that from the standpoint of learning a global
mindset the number of students studying
abroad is a much more significant number
for Japan than other countries. Yet this
number has dropped by 30% in just six years.
Naturally, this decrease is often cited as one
of the crises we are facing. There are several
reasons why this decrease is happening. I
discuss them individual below.

15. Reference 3.1 Number of Japanese
college+ students studying outside Japan
90000
80000
70000
60000
50000
40000
30000
20000
10000
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
0
Decrease of Younger Generations
in Japan
The first factor is a decrease in the absolute
population of students in Japan. Japan is
said to be one of the fastest aging countries
in the world. One reason for this is Japan
having the longest average lifespan in the
world, but another is the fact that Japan
suffers from one of the lowest per capita
birth rate. For example, there were 16.5
million Japanese aged 25 in 1986, but this
number had decreased to 16.0 million in
2004 and 14.4million in 2010.
A decrease of 13% within 24 years is
significant. Yet this alone does not explain
the drop in Japanese students going abroad
for studies. After all, this number increased
580% during the 1984-2004 period
even though the 25-year old population
decreased by 3% during the same period.
Similarly, during the period from 2004 to
2010, Japanese students going abroad
decreased by 30% while the 25-year old
population decreased by only 10%. What
can be said is that the decrease of students
going abroad after 2004 greatly exceeds the
decrease in the population of young adults
in Japan.
Earlier Recruiting Activities of
College Students
Although it is not discussed deeply
enough in Japan, I believe the primary
reason for fewer students going abroad is
earlier recruitment of college students by
employers. For a country where ‘lifetime
employment’ is still alive, choosing which
company to work for after they graduate
from college means a lot more for both the
students and for the companies. Thus, both
sides spend a long time in selecting each
other.ii
Before 1996, colleges and corporate
employers had an agreement whereby
companies could only extend an offer of
employment to university students after
October 1 of their final academic year.
When this agreement was in force, college
students only started doing job interviews
after summer of their final year of college.
However, this agreement was terminated in
1996 as a result of which companies have
started recruiting students earlier in their
academic careers. Now recruiting interviews
tend to start in the fall of the third year of
college – a time when college students
in many countries take the opportunity to
study abroad. This earlier recruiting has
made it more difficult for Japanese students
to spend a long time abroad, since they
may lose the opportunity to obtain a job
with a good employer as a result. Although
universities are trying to address this
problem, we have seen little improvement
in the situation so far. Unfortunately it
means that our younger generations are
losing an important opportunity to learn a
global mindset. This situation needs to be
remedied in order to reverse the current
trend.
Unemployed Younger
Generations of OECD Countries
Although there are many in the younger
Japanese generations who are willing to
challenge to get jobs at non-Japanese
firms or to get jobs outside Japan, they face
the higher unemployment rates among
young people in other OECD countries. The
unemployment rate of younger generations
of OECD countries (average) was 13% in
1990, but this figure rose to 16.7% in 2010.
In Japan, the figure rose from under 5%
in 1990 to 9.4% in 2010, but the figure is
still significantly lower than that of OECD
average (ILO Report, 2012). Increased
unemployment in the younger generations
is common across all OECD countries, and
Japan is no exception. Every day in the
Nikkei (Japan’s leading business paper)
there are articles describing how tough it is
for college seniors who have not yet found
a job. The difficult employment situation
means that students must devote more of
their student days to getting a job offer.
However, the situation in Japan nonetheless
seems better than in other OECD countries.
I believe this recruiting toughness outside
GLOBAL MINDSET
13

16. Japan is one of the major reasons for
making the Japanese students not willing
to study abroad and to challenge overseas
opportunities.
Salary Level Issue (Japan vs.
non-OECD countries)
The next obstacle to developing a global
mindset is the salary level gap between
Japan and many non-OECD countries. This
issue is not limited to younger generations.
The ManpowerGroup sees many Japanese
applicants who show an interest in overseas
job opportunities. In addition, many
companies in countries such as China,
Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam want to
hire Japanese managers, engineers and
specialists. However, few of these potential
matches reach fruition due to the fact that
the salary levels in such other countries is
much lower than what they can expect in
Japan.
“Minimum wage
(US$)”
Japan
OECD
Australia
UK
France
USA
1,222
1,557
1,431
1,402
1,014
Other countires
Taiwan
Korea
Philippines
Thailand
China
Indonesia
Vietnam
India
955
815
424
304
204
142
120
113
ILO, Global wage report 2008/9
Japan=Ministry of Welfare and Labor 2013
$1=JPY100
The above chart shows the difference of
minimum monthly wages, but the same
discrepancy applies to specialists and
engineer salaries as well. When this gap
is taken into account, it is only logical for
the younger Japanese to be less motivated
to challenge themselves in these growing
countries.
English Capability Issue
The Japanese language is quite different
from English, which has become the de
14
THE RIGHT QUARTERLY
facto global language. In that sense, Japan
suffers from a handicap when dealing with
the rest of the world. The extent of this
gap is suggested by a study showing how
long it takes an English speaking American
to become highly fluent in various foreign
languages (”Expected Levels of Absolute
Speaking Fluency in Language Taught
at the Foreign Institute”(’73, Kirihara),
Foreign Service Institute, an affiliate to
the Department of State, USA). The study
categorizes languages into four groups
according to ease of acquisition. For
example, Dutch is in Group One, the
easiest languages to learn for an English
speaking person. On average it takes 960
hours of study for an American to become
highly fluent in Dutch. On the other hand,
to achieve the same level of proficiency
in Group Four languages (which include
Japanese as well as Korean, Chinese and
Arabic), it takes 2,400 to 2,760 hours. Such
levels of difficulty naturally apply going
the other way – English is a very difficult
language for Japanese people to learn.
The study time involved can result in
language capability gaps and can hinder the
development of a global mindset for nonEnglish speaking Japanese people.
So Japan suffers from a linguistic
handicap.
However, when we compare among
speakers of some of the Group Four
languages, it is disappointing to find out
that the Japanese are lagging behind in this
group as well. Comparing TOEFL scores in
China, Korea and Japan (TOEFL being widely
used to evaluate English capabilities for
college and graduate school applications
in the US and other English-speaking
countries), we see that all three countries
were at about the same levels during the
late 1970s. By 2000 Japan lags far behind
China and Korea – why? The widening
gap coincides with a significant change in
Japanese education policies. In 1993, the
Ministry of Education significantly relaxed
educational requirements in response to
much criticism over so-called “cramming
education”. The resulting more relaxed
educational policy continued until 2009
and also overlaps the drop in the number
of students pursuing overseas study
opportunities that require the use of English.
Fortunately, in 2009 this relaxed policy was

17. changed to require more hours of study in
major subject areas. With respect to English,
the number of hours of English study during
the three years of junior high school (ages
13 to 15) was increased from 315 hours to
420 hours. Nonetheless, it was still a painful
experiment in trying “yutori” (=relaxed)
education that caused a generation of
young people to be less competitive
globally. (Study result: “TOEFL, TOEIC and
English Capability of the Japanese”, Kumiko
Torikai, 2002).
TOEFL Scores of 3 Asian Countries
Late70s
84/86
95/96
99/2000
496
499
504
Japan
483
China
501
556
559
Korea
504
518
533
Immigration Policy of the
Government
The final factor is Japanese immigration
policy. In 2008, there were 2.2million
non-Japanese residents in Japan, which is
1.74% of our total population. However,
this low level means Japan ranks 170th
among all the 230 countries in the world.
This compares to 41% of Singapore, which
shows the highest figure among the Asian
countries, but Japan also scores very low
when compared to countries such as
Australia (26.7%), Germany (13.1%), USA
(13.0%), UK (12.0%), and the Netherlands
(11.4%). On this point, I do not think we can
blame the Japanese Government, because
immigration policies reflect the Japanese
people’s generally negative opinion towards
accepting “aliens” into our own culture. (The
notion of excluding “outsiders” is deeply
rooted even within Japanese society – for
someone like me, a normal Japanese person
living in Tokyo, it would be very difficult to
live in many parts of rural Japan. I believe
this exclusionary tendency will continue for
at least two more generations (sigh!).)
Unfortunately, this “comfortable
homogeneous atmosphere” is maintained
at the very high cost of lowering our
“economic voltage within the country”
(“Population Drop”, Toshihiro Menju, 2011),
as well as missing the opportunity to learn
the global mindset within our country. If we
are to proceed towards growth and accept
the global mindset (which is the only way,
I believe), we need to change our current
attitudes.
by Hiroyuki Izutsu
Representative Director and
General Manager
Japan
i In the context of studying abroad, “students” refers to students admitted to a recognized course of higher
education in a country of which they are not already permanent residents or nationals..
ii According to Nikkei (https://job.nikkei.co.jp/2014/secretariat/99965261/blog/post/1/2/?navi_hplink), an
average Japanese college student makes inquiries (web-based applications) to 89.1companies, submits
formal applications to 23.6 companies, takes 16.0 employment tests administered by companies and conducts
interviews with 11.4 companies.
iii OECD countries = Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
GLOBAL MINDSET
15

18. Point of View Article
A glocal country manager:
a must for a global
organization
Your company is expanding. More offices
are being set up in different regions around
the world, each requiring a new head.
Who you hire to lead these teams can
make or break your company’s regional
plans and strategies. Thus the role of a
country manager is a critical decision that
is recommended companies pay close
attention to.
A country manager by definition is
responsible for the overall performance of a
particular geographical directory. In general,
there are two broadly differentiated types
of country managers, those who head call
centres and those who drive profit centres.
The focus of the first type primarily covers
how to drive efficiency, employee retention
and response time. For example, the
manager of a call centre in India has the
responsibility to deliver the type of service to
their regional headquarters or to their parent
company from their particular directory. For
country managers who run profit centres,
they have to really look at driving top line
growth, ensuring bottom line profit outcome
from this growth, as well as keeping
competitors and new entrants at bay.
To achieve these effects is no mean feat, and
without a strong team it is almost impossible
to do. The main priority of a country
manager should thus be to build a cohesive
team that works with him/her to make the
16
THE RIGHT QUARTERLY
company an engaging and inspiring place
to work. This team will also be the talent
pool considered for any succession planning
initiative, so in the event a country manager
decides to leave, there will not be a big
gap between the country manager and the
second-in-charge. In Asia-Pacific especially,
strong managers with experience are hard
to find and hard to keep due to mobility
of skills. Therefore, having a good team
leaves room for the country manager to
concentrate on being a talent magnet and
retaining top talent.
Top qualities of country
managers
Good business acumen is the first and
foremost trait to look out for in a potential
candidate. As all managers go, they must
be able to maintain the ongoing viability
of the business, preferably with proven P&L
experience. Businesses cannot survive by
maintaining the status quo, hence country
managers have the responsibility of growing
revenue lines regardless of economic
conditions. But what else contributes to
making a good country manager? They
are not just the business leaders for their
regions, but also the link between the region
and head office. They represent everything
the region stands for and contributes to
the larger organization. Hence the country
manager must be someone who is a global

19. agility
information
thought leadership
strategy
culture
VUCA
collaboration
synergy
leader, while also understanding and
aligning the local regions expectations and
culture – a glocal leader.
People Leadership
Each country has culture and norms unique
to its own. Inbuilt into the expectation of
leading a strong team is the need for country
managers to be sensitive to the team’s
needs and priorities. Through effective
communication, country managers learn
to understand the practices of locals. Once
that is established, they can begin to apply
their influencing skills and build a reputation
of being a good person to work for or work
under. Consequently, this will attract talents
to join the ranks of the company, leading to
stability.
Thought Leadership
Many country managers when elected
achieve success in the first 3-5 years of their
role, but without knowledge and awareness
of current trends in the industry it is hard for
them to maintain their performance beyond
that. By keeping in touch and being updated
with the changing landscape of the industry,
country managers will evolve with the times.
Hire internally or externally?
The eternal debate of whether country
managers should be hired internally or
externally really depends on the situation.
However it is recommended that companies
should look internally first.
There are many advantages to this move,
most of which come from the knowledge
and understanding the internal candidate
has of the company culture. If no suitable
candidate is found in one particular office,
the search can be extended to offices in
other regions. The outcome of internal hiring
is not just obtaining a country manager who
can produce results faster, but such a move
sends a strong signal to other employees
that career progression within the company
is possible. This has a huge impact on
talent retention. It also sends a message
to employees that a global mindset is
necessary for a country head role.
Historically speaking, 60-65% of external
candidates fail coming into a senior position
due to a variety of reasons. Firstly, they lack
the depth of understanding of a company’s
history and culture, and secondly by trying
to change an organization from the outsidein, they often face the challenge alone. A
prime example would be Sony, who brought
on an American as their CEO but have yet to
experience a successful turnaround in their
P&L.
To improve success rate of external
candidates, companies should look through
their professional network referrals first,
rather than advertise the availability of the
role through recruitment for example. Better
assessment occurs by knowing someone
personally, compared to interviewing
someone you do not have previous rapport
with.
Ultimately, where to look for suitable
candidates will be determined by the
responsibilities of the role. If that is not
concluded early, either way could be a
wrong choice.
GLOBAL MINDSET
17

20. Types of experience a country
manager should have
From a macro perspective, a country
manager should have international work
experience, a sizeable P&L track record and
continuous career progression throughout
his professional life. Typically, in emerging
economies, country managers will be
younger and less experienced. In more
mature economies, older, more experienced
managers are more common.
On a micro level, the key attribute that
country managers should have is the
ability to continuously upgrade and
update themselves to help adapt to the
changing landscape. Today, people are
living longer and many choose to work past
the traditional retirement age. A country
manager must be able to motivate different
generations of workers who have vastly
different values, different qualities and
different outlooks in life to perform together
as a team.
Simply put, country managers should be
people with a strong ego. These leaders
display confidence from an ego perspective
yet remain open and humble to the views
and opinions of others. They do not allow
their successes to make them arrogant, but
work to continuously improve their own
knowledge and skill set. They know past
18
THE RIGHT QUARTERLY
success is not a predictor of future success.
This is different from someone with a big
ego, who shares the same confidence but
shuts out input from anyone else. In Jim
Collins’ book ‘Good to Great’ he made a
case that there are no bad managers, only
great managers who are able to focus on
the success of the team to achieve their
goals. Great managers are those who
craft solutions that are more comprehensive
and acceptable to all members in a team.
Immersion
Foreigners who become country managers
must have a learning and appreciation
of the country they work in, but do not
necessarily need to speak the language.
Although this will be an advantage in some
cases, but it can also pose a distraction.
Being presumptive is a state one can easily
slip into without trying to fully understand
the feelings of the local people.
Immersion is one compelling way to
cultivate an appreciation for local culture.
This would see expats or foreign managers
living in a local neighbourhood, learning
about day to day activities, about the food,
music, culture and family life. If country
managers take time to build that, people
will be much more forgiving of you when
you make mistakes.

21. Learning cultural norms will influence
the way a manager makes decisions and
conduct day to day operations. The end
result is that they will come across as being
respectful and sensitive without losing the
firmness needed to make decisions that
drive the business forward.
The interview process
21st century candidates are well trained in
the art of interviewing, either from school
or professional coaching and they become
a true master during interviews. To find the
best candidate fit, a comprehensive 360
degree view should be taken with multiple
levels of assessment. You can conduct
business simulations, panel interviews,
behavioural interviewing and psychometric
assessment, all the way up to assessment
centers where potential candidates simulate
a day in the life of the role they are vying for.
The universal principle behind effective
selection is that past behaviour predicts
future behaviour. Dig into critical incidences
of what the candidate has achieved in
the past to skip over all the well prepared
answers. By extracting specific examples
and situations, companies minimise being
blindsided and they know exactly what
action was taken and what results were
achieved.
Local or foreign hire?
The mobility and adaptability of candidates
in Asia-Pacific make this a hotly contentious
topic. Again, whether country managers are
local or foreign will depend heavily on the
requirements of the role of the job and the
company’s business strategy. The candidate
who fits best would be the most ideal.
However, being specific will provide some
advantages. In a service business, hiring
local talent gives you a certain edge
due to cultural familiarity and a gentler
learning curve. This means a shorter time
to performance in many cases. Non service
businesses have more flexibility.
Over the long term, companies should
localise the management team so that
upcoming, emerging leaders can see that if
they apply themselves, work hard and learn
leadership, they too can become a country
head.
Best practice for hiring and
selecting a country manager
There must be a systematic approach
surrounding three main points in the hiring
process. Find out candidates’ skills and
competencies as that will give you a good
idea of what they’re capable of doing today.
GLOBAL MINDSET
19

22. Experience describes the background
a candidate is coming from, including
what he has been exposed to in terms of
geographics, size and scope of operations.
If the role is a technical one, candidates
must have the appropriate expertise and
knowledge to lead their teams.
the higher the probability of getting a
suitable candidate who can bring the right
skills set, knowledge and experience on
board.
Conclusion
The worst thing to do is approach the
hiring process unprepared, not knowing
what specifics to look out for or what key
questions to ask candidates. However, it is
quite clear that across all candidates, each
of them must be continuously upgrading
themselves to adapt to the changing
environment. The wider you cast your net,
20
THE RIGHT QUARTERLY
by Ronnie Tan
Group EVP, Asia Pacific and
Global Talent Management
AsiaPac/Singapore
by Ric Roi
SVP, APAC and Global Center
of Excellence
Singapore

23. 2012 APAC Talent and Career Management
At a Glance…
22
Countries of
446
delivery
64 Full-Time TM Consultants
& 38 Associates
156 Career Management
Consultants’
Avg Tenure
Assessment Projects
7.9
y
years
14,482
,
Program Participants
Consulting Wins
124 Assessment Centre &
173 additional Talent
Talent Management
clients served
729
Projects
Won
Right Management’s Talent and
Career Management Capability
TALENT
ASSESSMENT
LEADER
DEVELOPMENT
Competency Modeling
Leadership Pipeline
Development
Organizational Assessment
Leader Coaching™
Team Assessment
L
DEV EA D
ELO ER
PM
W OR KF
TALENT AND CAREER
MANAGEMENT
OR
CE
WORKFORCE TRANSITION
& OUTPLACEMENT
Outplacement
Succession Management
Performance Management
T
EN
AS T
S
T
EN ENT
AL SM
ES
E M P LOY E E
ENGA
GEME NT
O
RG
E F AN IZ
AT I O NA L
FE
CT
I VE N S
ES
Individual Assessment
ORGANIZATIONAL
EFFECTIVENESS
Strategy Implementation
Redeployment
Strategic Workforce Alignment
Career Decision
Change Management
Career Development
EMPLOYEE
ENGAGEMENT
Strategic Communications
Planning
Workforce Engagement
and Retention Strategies
Wellness and Productivity
Management

24. 2013