Global Mindset Now Required For Upwardly Mobile Execs

Global Mindset Inventory Enhances Success
Of International Assignments


(GLENDALE, Ariz.) — When a company such as Walmart is expecting one of its future CEOs to advance from its overseas operations, it underscores the growing importance of upwardly mobile executives and managers to think and act globally, according to the Thunderbird School of Management’s Global Mindset® Institute.

It’s becoming more critical to the career progression of executives and managers to develop a global mindset, especially if they wish to move into senior management. However, many smart, talented executives fail in international assignments due to poor candidate selection, inadequate preparation, and other reasons.

International service is more often becoming a way to climb to the executive suite:

- Walmart may in the future be led by an executive born outside the U.S., according to Doug McMillon, president and chief executive officer of Walmart International. “A future CEO of Walmart could be stocking shelves in India today,” McMillon said in a Bloomberg News interview in December. McMillon has been considered a possible successor to current Walmart CEO Mike Duke.

- More than 7 out of 10 Fortune 100 C-suite executives have held senior-level positions overseas, up from less than 5 in 10 a decade ago, according to a study by Healthy Companies International.

With international experience more frequently becoming a prerequisite to executive succession, it’s imperative for companies to select the right people for them and ensue their success.

“Choosing the wrong person for an international assignment is costly for both companies and workers. People come home before their contracted time, or they don’t achieve their goals. Business is lost, and professional and personal relationships can be damaged,” said Mansour Javidan, dean of research at the Global Mindset Institute www.globalmindset.com.

Insufficient preparation of executives and managers for global roles can result in career derailment for those who may have otherwise succeeded, Javidan added.

“Most executives and managers are not educated to work with people who are unlike them. They bring their different ways of thinking, understanding, acting, and communicating with them to their international assignments, and are not well versed in how to deal with intense diversity, despite the growing globalization of the business world,” Javidan said.

To increase their success in global assignments, the Global Mindset Institute has worked with more than 1,000 executives and managers across the world on the qualities they feel are required to succeed in a cross-cultural environment, and developed the Global Mindset Inventory (GMI). Currently, almost 10,000 people from multiple cultures have completed the survey.

The Global Mindset Inventory is a web-based, integrated, scientifically verified framework of characteristics that assist executives and organizations in building a global mindset.

“A global mindset is a set of individual characteristics that help global leaders better influence individuals, groups, organizations, and systems unlike their own. An organization’s global mindset is the sum total of its individual employees’ global mindsets. Companies with a high global mindset are able to compete most effectively in a global economy,” said Javidan.

The Global Mindset Inventory comprises 76 items, takes only 10 to 15 minutes for executives and managers to complete, and has versions available for corporate, government, and nonprofit executives and managers. It is available in self-assessment and 360 versions. Top global companies including LG electronics, Amway, and Raytheon, among others, have already used the tool in their executive development programs to stay on the cutting edge of international business.

The GMI can be used for development or for selection, and aids organizations in identifying who is likely to succeed in international assignments. It also suggests where development dollars need to be spent in order to prepare high-potentials for global roles.

The Global Mindset Inventory has three main components:

- Intellectual capital, or knowledge of international business and the capacity to learn

- Psychological capital, or openness to different cultures and the capability to change

- Social capital, or the ability to form connections, to bring people together, and to influence stakeholders – including colleagues, clients, suppliers, and regulatory agencies – who are unlike the executive in cultural heritage, professional background, or political outlook.

Executives who are strong in all three dimensions have the greatest likelihood of succeeding in international assignments.

“Until now, corporations have lacked the ability to reliably gauge their management team’s capability and effectiveness in multicultural and global environments. Pre- and post-score comparisons of international business students who have taken the GMI demonstrate that a global mindset can be developed over time,” said Javidan.

The Global Mindset Inventory was formulated at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, the world’s No. 1 ranked graduate school of international management. The GMI is available in English, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese and Russian, and can be readily translated into the language of choice using the Thunderbird’s Global Mindset Institute rigorous translation process. Executives and managers can assess their global mindset in the language with which they are most familiar and comfortable.

“Regardless of an executive’s country of origin, the Global Mindset Inventory is free of cultural bias, and truly measures one’s global mindset,” added Javidan.

For more information about the Global Mindset Inventory, please visit www.globalmindset.com or call 602-978-7182.

About Thunderbird
Thunderbird is the world’s No. 1-ranked school of international business with more than 60 years of experience in developing leaders with the global mindset, business skills and social responsibility necessary to create real, sustainable value for their organizations, communities and the world. Dedicated to preparing students to be global leaders and committed global citizens, Thunderbird was the first graduate business school to adopt an official Professional Oath of Honor. Thunderbird is sought out by graduate students, working professionals and companies worldwide seeking to gain the leadership skills they need to succeed in today’s global economy. For more about Thunderbird, please visit: www.thunderbird.edu.

About Thunderbird Global Mindset Institute
The Thunderbird Global Mindset Institute is one of Thunderbird’s Centers for Excellence and the preeminent source of the science and practice of global leadership as it relates to the definition, measurement and development of global mindset. Global Mindset is a set of nine individual attributes that help global leaders influence individuals, groups and organizations that differ from them. These nine attributes can be clustered into Intellectual Capital, Social Capital and Psychological Capital.

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