SA businesses need a shift in leadership mind frames

Jenny Tyobeka

The report, 'Domestic to Global Leadership: Positioning South African companies for global competitiveness', is the result of a collaborative partnership between JT Executive Coaching & Advisory Services, Lodestar Marketing Research and Quest Staffing Solutions.

"Whether sourcing talented employees, new customers, suppliers or partners, the strategic and operational challenges businesses must overcome, in order to compete for access to these resources and opportunities, have multiplied and grown in complexity," says report spokesperson and founder of JT Executive Coaching & Advisory Services, Jenny Tyobeka.

The report explores the readiness of South African companies - and their management - to lead and compete effectively in this global economic landscape. "We also examined how business leaders experience this global reality, the salient company leadership demands they face to thrive competitively and profitably, and how companies can support their leaders in transitioning from domestic to global leadership," Tyobeka adds.

Two key drivers

The research found that resource allocation and development decisions, related to two key drivers of global competitiveness, talent development and digital enablement, are inseparable from their experiences of global reality.

In terms of talent development, the report highlights indications of South Africa beginning to follow the global trend of sourcing scarce leadership talent from Africa and globally - with 19% of researched South African businesses having indicated this strategy.

"While more companies (77%) noted the intention to grow internal employee capacities to fill managerial positions, there is a mismatch between the intention to grow talent internally and Human Resources practices in a number of these companies," says Kay Vittee, CEO of Quest Staffing Solutions.

Looking at digital enablement, many local businesses have limited their strategic manoeuvrability and innovativeness through their lack of digital capabilities. "Only 40% were found to be substantially or fully digitally enabled. If digitisation is not substantially or fully integrated into the corporate strategies of businesses, they risk employing competitive advantage levers, such as size and scale, which served many companies well in the mid to late 1900's but are now far less effective," Tyobeka says.

Valid distinction

The report findings suggest that there is a valid distinction to be made between leadership accountability in the home market alone, and that on the rest of the African continent, and beyond to a more global reach.

"This is primarily dependent on the degree of globality in company leaders' responsibilities which impacts their perceptions, thinking and behaviour. Global operations are associated with many more, and more diverse issues to manage.

"The more global their companies' operations are, the more likely corporate leaders are to view global leadership as extremely relevant, hold a global perspective on their competition, show greater digital enablement, invest more in leadership talent creation, and display a wider range of domestic leadership capabilities."

"While company leaders operating in the domestic economy alone are, in effect, operating in a global business context, their challenges and leadership demands differ from those with a wider and more varied scope in geographical accountability. They are therefore less likely to think globally when executing locally," she explains.