“It’s more complicated than you think.” That could almost be our motto. Most business situations, the kind that come to the attention of the senior decision makers you are, require that leaders get a couple of big things right: the destination, so people know where they’re going, and a pole-star, so they don’t get lost. But the voyage itself is sure to be anything but clear sailing. Success comes to those who read and react to the unobvious but important complications of wind and current, who tack tirelessly in the face of adversity, who exploit every puff in the doldrums, who seize the chance for a long run downwind. This issue is all about the discriminations and the moves, large and small, that successful leaders make. My problem is picking only one or two among them to call out for your special attention.
Start with “Managing Differences: The Central Challenge of Global Strategy,” by Pankaj Ghemawat, who is teaching at IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. By now, every thoughtful businessperson has read Tom Friedman’s The World Is Flat (or knows enough about it to bluff) and understands its thesis. With the demise of the Soviet bloc, the rise of the Internet, and the emergence of India and China, the world has become a level playing field, where competitive advantage accrues to talent and effort, not to accidents of birth or geography. This is an important argument, but the discriminating mind sees two things wrong with it. First, walls may be down, but the world’s not flat as all that. Second, businesspeople want to fight
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