BOSTON, October 25, 2012—Today’s two-speed world creates unprecedented challenges for chief executives. They must fold emerging-market businesses into the core of their companies, generate predictable returns from their still sizable mature-market businesses, create a culture that is relevant globally, and be viewed as an authentic and credible leader in many different markets.
To understand how companies are navigating these two worlds, The Boston Consulting Group has been interviewing chief executives. In the first set of interviews, we spoke with Nils S. Andersen of A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, Siegfried Russwurm of Siemens Industry Sector, Howard Schultz of Starbucks, and Jean-Pascal Tricoire of Schneider Electric.
These CEOs and their companies are coming up with creative and practical ways to lead in a two-speed world.
Starbucks recently held meetings for the parents of employees in Beijing and Shanghai as an expression of the company’s appreciation of the importance of family in China.
The managing board of Siemens frequently visits emerging markets. Rather than simply hold court in a conference room, the ten board members fan out into the field and visit with customers and government officials.
Schneider Electric’s Tricoire frequently travels alone to countries to capture an unfiltered view of the local people and operations.
Maersk has decentralized its organization so that executives closest to the market have the authority to act swiftly in response to developments.
Bcgperspectives.com, BCG’s online site, features videos of three of the interviews and written transcripts of all four.
The series of interviews is ongoing. In the coming weeks, BCG will be releasing video of interviews with Dieter Zetsche of Daimler and Lorenzo Zambrano of Cemex, among others.
The interviews can be viewed at www.bcgperspectives.com.
To learn more, please contact Eric Gregoire at +1 617 850 3783 or gregoire.eric@bcg.com.