Winning the Race

Winning the Race Summary

As the economic activity in emerging markets is growing at a compounded rate of around 40%, many companies are drawn to these countries (BRIC in particular) as a potential means to drive growth.  One of their major challenges, however, is attracting and retaining talent as the ideas of brand, opportunity, purpose, and culture may differ from what outside companies are used to.  These four factors unite under two principles- promises made (i.e., brand, opportunity, and purpose) and promises kept (i.e., culture) and emphasize how incoming companies must have strong differentiation from incumbents.

To attract talent, it is vital that companies incite a feeling of pride by linking strong brands, organizational purpose, and accelerated career opportunities with factors such as recruiting influential local talent or contributing to the local economic development.  Retaining talent, however, can be more tricky as the efforts of companies can at times become seen as “overpromising” to fill headcounts.  Failure to deliver on the promises made to employees can harm the company in two primary ways.  First, employees can quickly and easily move to competitors, both global and local.  Second, it harms the appeal of the company with other future employees which, as attraction is a major challenge, can be devastating.  To combat this, promises must tie into the culture of the company- that is, a culture that supports the goals and ambitions of employees in developing economies as well as employees in the company’s home country.  Leadership development is an important aspect of this.  Providing careful and customized career development is often a key to prevent the loss of high-potential talent.    

There are also some special challenges within emerging markets to keep in mind.  First, be wary of exporting one’s domestic talent strategy to emerging markets as it will likely need extreme tailoring.  Second, it is critical to establish core local talent that can guide understanding of the region.  Finally, while diversity is vital, it can also be difficult to embrace and leverage.