Ángel Cabrera: Global Leaders Can Be Made

DHL International co-founder, Po Chung, shared his fascinating life journey, from poor fisherman in Macau, to hand delivering packages in Hong Kong, to building a global distribution empire.  He talked about leadership, entrepreneurship and meaning.

He described how creating a business is a bit like delivering a baby and criticized business schools as only teaching  “pediatrics” (how to take care of the baby after birth) but not “obstetrics” (how to actually deliver the baby from the womb).  Creating (delivering) a business is more about creativity and design than it is about finance, HR or marketing.  Too much management too early can kill an incipient business, in the same way that too little management expertise can prevent a business from reaching its full potential.

Entrepreneurs are more designers than a business administrators.  They have to design everything: the product, the processes, the office, the logo, the business forms… iIt’s not surprising that Po has discovered painting after retiring from active business… one of his pieces is displayed here).

University of Toronto business school dean Roger Martin has for years argued that business schools ought to include design among its basic disciplines.  I believe he and Po are right.  There’s no amount of finance, or business planning that can teach how to envision and create a business that does not exist yet.  We may need to find the tools among the creative arts, an idea we need to include in our ongoing strategic brainstorming .

Former NYT/IHT journalist, turned social media guru Thomas Crampton (who’s been a personal mentor in my own blogging  journey) spoke about how social media is revolutionizing media, communications and branding.  It took years for Po Chung and his colleagues at DHL to cover the world (one office, and one fight with the local post office at a time).  It takes a new blogger five minutes to set up a global platform to express ideas an opinions.  The new generations don’t know life without social media, and companies that want to remain in business should start understanding how to use social media to build brands, reach customers, engage with customers and even have customers co-create the business.

Education is probably the next frontier, the next industry that will be turned upside down by the new media.  Another item for Thunderbird’s ongoing strategic brainstorm: how can we surf the new wave of technology to connect with the new generations of global leaders.

Posted: 11|7|09 at 12:24 pm.
Filed under: Global Entrepreneurship, Thunderbird.
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