Intersectional CEOs

OK – so now that I am at it … here is another post about an article I just read in Newsweek. The article highlights a growing trend – one that I believe we will see accelerate with tremendous force. Dan Gross writes that we are seeing more and more US corporations hiring foreign-born CEOs. This holds true for many different industries and among various competitors: 

In 2004, after several years of lackluster growth, Coca-Cola appointed a non-American, Neville Isdell, as CEO. Isdell's résumé reads like Graham Greene meets Good to Great: Born in Ireland, he went to work for Coca-Cola in 1966 in Zambia and had posts in South Africa, Australia, the Philippines, Germany, and the United Kingdom. He earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Cape Town, and it appears that his first full-time posting in Coca-Cola's Atlanta headquarters came in 2004, when he was named CEO.

Not to be outdone by its rival, PepsiCo—which is not a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average but has greater revenues than Coke—bested Coca-Cola in the global diversity sweepstakes. Last fall it appointed Indra Nooyi, a woman born and educated in India, as CEO.

This trend should not come as a surprise. In fact, perhaps the biggest surprise is that it has taken so long for it to take off in the US. Globalization is roaring ahead at lightning speed but it is not enough to have people that are excellent at what they do - that is the baseline. You also need people that understand the power of different perspectives across cultures and domains.  Gross points out that:

The notion that American men who have spent their entire careers working in the United States—as is the case with the overwhelming majority of U.S. executives—are ideal candidates to lead such organizations seems increasingly out of date.

And yet, it is somewhat amazing that this crop of CEOs has risen to the top. For all the lip service paid to diversity and globalization, the corporate suites of Fortune 500 companies remain a bastion of conformity.

There are several lessons from this. First - corporations are increasingly understanding the incredibly benefits of diversity and second – they are desperately trying to understand how to leverage that diversity. The road to breakthrough innovation can be found that way. I often say that the single most important leadership skill for the next couple of decades, at least for those that wish to advance new ideas, will be how to recruit, manage and leverage diversity. In order to truly understand how to do those things successfully you must have been exposed to it. Find every opportunity you can get to do so - then step into the Intersection.