Leading in a Culturally-Diverse Financial Consulting Corporation

Leading in a Culturally-Diverse Financial Consulting Corporation
Roger Haller
LDR/300
8/10/2020
Dr. Munson

Leading in a Culturally-Diverse Financial Consulting Corporation

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Expanding our consulting business from a National Powerhouse to an International leader in financial consultation means adding a dynamic new dimension to our business model. We now become much more diverse in thought, process, and methodology.
We add time zone considerations, culture, international laws, regulation, and specific government and corporate compliance and rules subject to companies operating in the countries we intend to serve.
We must also learn from other’s mistakes. Case in point, the communication gap between Proctor and Gamble, Duracell, and Nanfu (Gao, 2014). Cultural business mistakes that could have been avoided by positive communication and a basic understanding of how communication breakdowns caused by preformed ideas, could have been a much better experience with an empathetic and listening leadership.

Leading Change In An Expanding Business

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The best two tools for change management is involvement and engagement. Our new consultants must be full partners in the change. They know the front line in their countries, and they know the customer best.
MegaGlobe has just acquired some amazing talent and insight that will be critical to our success in Sao Paul and Shenzhen. Involvement and engagement are also going to be the bridge to two-way trust between the headquarters and remote locations (Film Media, 2007).
The local voice in our decisions will build that productive trust. Recognition of our new remote leaders will build a global team environment and allow the company as a whole to learn and grow from the diverse input from all locals. From this insight, we can understand the best leadership style to apply in our new locations.
The cultural insight will be needed for those decisions (Shao, Webber, 2006)

International Team Leadership Model

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There are some things that Transcend international boundaries, governments, regulations, and cultures that we need to lead with, no matter the country or environment we work in.
Some of those things are staples of successful leadership such as respect, empathy, listening to understand rather than to respond, vision, friendliness, and the understanding that the bottom line is personal to everyone (Teletime Video, 2015).
This means making our company’s leadership model a win for the local employees and customers. These are the two most important ingredients for success. Both groups must immediately see the advantage of MegaGlobe’s business solutions to them.
That brings us to the various levels of government in Shenzhen and Sao Paulo. They will want to see a positive effect on their people, industries, tax bases, and overall gross product.
You then must apply those basics to your leadership model featuring the constraints of the local and international environment features described above.

Improvements In Business Structure From Diversity

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History of major acquisitions and mergers shows a dismal return in success for most (Renneboog, Vansteenkiste, 2019). In order to beat those odds, we have to be the best with the diversity of thought.
The deck is stacked against us finding the best leaders because of norms. We need to be cognizant of that fact and dig through the noise to find the best leaders hidden by the filters. Filters such as gender (Sandberg, 2010), culture, alma mater, age, sexual identification, nationality, religion, and so many more.
The first step is identifying our bias and building guardrails around it. Our new Brazilian and Chinese insight will provide a much-needed window into those countries and other international opportunities that will allow us to expand into new countries and cultures.

Positive Changes For Motivation

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All lasting business is built on friendship – purehappylife.com.
A person’s employment is a huge factor in the quality of life for them and their families. Beginning a career with a foreign company is a huge leap of faith that carries stress and uncertainty as they adjust to our culture, our norms, and our lifestyle.
The way we begin and maintain that relationship has a lot to do with our success or failure in those locals, and with those new employees. We need to stand up as friends, mentors, and mentees.
This is the perfect opportunity to listen to those concerns, fears, and questions to gain a full understanding of the depth and degree, and answer with reassurance, detailed information, and support.
This change must feel welcomed and positive for the full benefit of our involvement in their lives.
A welcoming smile from these new teammates will be a sign our positive motivation is working.

Conclusion

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Expanding to other countries and cultures is a two-way street. We see ample evidence that process and methods that work well in North America, do not work so well in South American or Chinese cultures, so we need to follow the lead of subject matter experts in those cultures. Once we learn from them, through listening and observation, we can work with our new teams to supply innovation and support that does work.

Resources:

Related Videos

References:

Gao, M. H., 2014, The Six-Tier Communication Gap for Multinational Corporations After Mergers and Acquisitions: Lessons Learned from the Case of Duracell and Nanfu. Global Business Languages. 2014;19:85-100. Accessed August 7, 2020. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=shib&db=bth&AN=103421202&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Films Media Group. (2010). TedTalks: Sheryl Sandberg—why we have too few women leaders. Films On Demand. https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=18566&xtid=52917.

Films Media Group. (2007). Team leadership. Films On Demand. https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=18566&xtid=116778

Renneboog, L, Vansteenkiste, C, 2019, Journal of Corporate Finance, V 58, P 650-699, Failure and success in mergers and acquisitions. Source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2019.07.010

Shao, L, Webber, S, 2006, Journal of Business Research, A cross-cultural test of the ‘five-factor model of personality and transformational leadership’, Source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2006.02.005

TeleTime Video (Producer), & . (2015). Leadership. [Video/DVD] TeleTime Video. Retrieved from https://video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/leadership