Lucie Newcomb-Interview with the Global Leadership Guru
Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam* Interview Series
(Global Leaders who have Enlarged, Excelled and Evolved into
Global Personal Brands)
Dr Amit Nagpal-How do you help clients in creating new products?
Lucie Newcomb-Although we do help clients with product development, we are more focused on helping clients find new markets and, then, winning in those markets in both the short- and long-terms. This is why we have a horizontal framework, for pull-through: Global Markets Leadership (international marketing and foreign direct investment) and Global Individual and Team Leadership (change management, cross-cultural training, global leadership). We don’t want to be just a “launch and drop shop”, although we are quite good at this; we want to partner with our clients for embedded brands and revenue streams worldwide.
Dr Amit-What specific strategies do you use to help clients implement changes that won’t be liked?
Lucie-We conduct stakeholder interviews, generally, and then formulate strategic recommendations that may well include follow-up values training and/or plans (via EcorityLeader ™). Despite our commitment to the Hall-Tonna methodology, we are not keen in general on assessments or typologies (we find they are used all too often as prescriptive instead of descriptive), so we partner with preferred DiSc and Myers-Briggs colleagues who may also be brought in, should further, or perhaps broader, diagnostic approaches be required. Then, we generally implement the development plan.
Dr Amit-Share some recent trends at Silicon Valley.
Lucie-There are a couple of key points that are paramount to doing business here successfully. The first is the acknowledgement that this is the worldwide hometown of entrepreneurial technology; ICT, Biotech, etc. Just like you wouldn’t go to Hollywood, the second other prominent cluster economy in the world, to start a farm, this is the place to come for building a tech startup or strengthening an IT giant. Most giants have their headquarters here; Google, HP, Cisco, Intuit, etc. While other titans like IBM and Microsoft have a Silicon Valley presence here, and the market leadership of their products is undisputable, I notice far fewer at key networking events.
There are other similar tech “hive” environments, but, especially if you want Venture Capital funding, this is it. And everyone here works in tech directly or indirectly, which can probably be oppressive for the shining few in the cosmetics industry, etc. Secondly, Fastest, not Best(est), is the driver here. First-to-market, also known as first mover advantage, is everything. Thirdly, life in California in general, in the Valley in particular, isn’t cheap. If you spend your entire budget to get here, with no funds for marketing, infrastructure, etc., it’s a losing proposition. If you want to do business here, over prepare, over research, under reach. And plan to work long and hard, before and during. Companies must be successful domestically, in their home markets, in order to be successful here – absolutely.
Dr Amit-What is Ecority?
Lucie-Ecority is a principle comes from the pivotal Values work of Brian Hall and Benjamin Tonna and their Hall-Tonna Inventory (HTI). They define it as, “to have the capacity, skills and level of influence, at the personal and/or organizational level, to enable individuals to take authority for the created order of the World by enhancing Beauty and Balance through creative technologies”. In other words, it means, to make our day or world (organization, home, community…) a better place! That’s why I chose it as the name (“EcorityLeader ™”) of our Leadership Development program – because this is how we see Leadership and how we foster global leadership capacity building.
Dr Amit-Share your hobbies and interests.
Lucie-As a global person, I’m particularly keen about travel, as one might expect. I also enjoy reading, the theatre, cinema, good conversation and dining…a little too much in the case of the last!
Dr Amit-What launch platforms would you suggest to a company going global for the first time?
Lucie-It really depends on the situation; the available resources in particular. Most of the time, we are adamant about a rigorous market entry plan and most often recommend working with a local partner (distributor, agent, joint venture partner) for at least the initial stages.
Dr Amit-Share how you help a client in Global Individual Leadership.
Lucie-Although we focus primarily on groups and team leadership, we believe all teams are comprised of individuals. So we also apply our Hall-Tonna values-based product, EcorityLeader™ at either the primer (diagnostic) or full (developmental) levels.
Dr Amit-Share something about “The Leader as Reader ™”
Lucie-The Leader as Reader ™ was conceived by us in early 2010 as a way to unite our clients and business community in global conversations of thought leadership. It was presented to the International Leadership Association (ILA) as a membership benefit on a pilot basis to assess the program’s delivery as a strategic partnership, as well as program adoption. We were honored to host Ron Heifetz, MD, MPH, lead author of The Practice of Adaptive Leadership; Jim Kouzes, co- author of the most popular Leadership book of all time, The Leadership Challenge; and Lisa Lahey, co-author of the enormously popular book, Immunity to Change.
Watch for what’s next in our series in July: The Global Leader as Reader™ as an extension to our upcoming NewComm Global Business Watch™ series, a new weekly digest of key global business events and analysis. The first session, on the Google+ Hangout platform, will be with The Plugged-In Manager author, Terri Griffith, on how the quintessential mix of people, tools and technologies is even more critical in the global arena. As we always say, to reading and leading!
*World is one Family in Sanskrit
*World is one Family in Sanskrit
----------------------
Brief Profile
Many thanks for this honor and best wishes for continued success and fulfillment!
ReplyDelete- Lucie
It was a pleasure conversing with you Lucie. Stay blessed, Stay inspired. :-) and inspiring individuals and organisations to develop a truly global mindset.
ReplyDelete