Publications 1 - 20 / 154

The 2009 Board of Directors Study, Australia and New Zealand is published
by Korn/Ferry International in partnership with Egan Associates. This year we
discuss the various trends in Non Executive Director selection, many of which
are a consequence of the global financial crisis and recent court decisions
involving board members.

The HR function is in a state of transition caused by the increasing pressure to identify and develop next-generation leaders, the growing globalization of businesses and talent pools, and the CEO’s requirement that HR be more strategic and relevant to the business as a whole. As HR seeks to meet these demands, others have questioned its effectiveness.

The premise of this Korn/Ferry Institute whitepaper is that HR executives who desire to create the organizational capability and talent strategies for the post-recession world need to be competent tacticians who also can think and act strategically. Among other things, this means behaving more like their colleagues with profit-and-loss responsibilities.

Chinese businesses have been integrating into the global economy at an extraordinary pace during the past decade. This large scope of globalization in China has created unprecedented human resource challenges. A chief concern has been the acute scarcity of Chinese leadership talent. Based on our global leadership assessment data, we contrasted Chinese managers with a global sample. It was found that people from around the globe – including China – have very similar views regarding what competencies are important for effective leadership. However, there were noticeable differences between Chinese managers and the global sample on skill ratings. Up to the middle management level, Chinese managers are as skilled as their global counterparts. However, the skill gap significantly widens at the executive level. This paper further identifies five critical development needs for Chinese executives.

As the world begins to emerge from the deepest recession in more than half a century, and with confidence eroded in all four corners of the globe, Latin America’s top chief executives are changing their priorities. In an attempt to find out more about this change and to compare against some of the findings that were revealed in the first CEO Vision leadership study in 2003, Korn/Ferry International, in partnership with INSEAD, The Business School for the World, interviewed 365 business leaders in eight different countries across the region. The executives were asked for their views on four main issues:

• Their key priorities;
• The consequences of the current economic scenario;
• Their biggest challenges in the coming years;
• and how they intend to meet them.

Following the onset of the recession, The Korn/Ferry Institute launched a new thought leadership series called Korn/Ferry's Career Playbook: Winning Strategies in Today's Job Market to address executive job seekers's most frequent and pressing questions.

The sixth article in this series uncovers how talent advisors from across Korn/Ferry's global network have noticed a subtle yet important change to the way offers are being presented to and reviewed by executives. This paper outlines how employers and prospective employees can effectively handle the negotiations process to forge an emotional ("subliminal") contract verbally even before the acceptance letter is signed.

Globalization, economic change, more stringent regulation and tougher governance make realizing shareholder value increasingly difficult. Never has it been more critical for companies not only to have the right leader in place, but a visible pipeline of high potential individuals ‘in-waiting’. Despite the immense challenges of the role, its prestige and visibility continue to create no shortage of people who aspire to become a CEO. So why do people strive to attain this pinnacle position and how do organizations identify the right attributes to make sure they invest in those individuals genuinely capable of reaching the top job?

Korn/Ferry Whitehead Mann interviewed 70 CEOs, Chairs, NEDs and HR Directors to understand what are the most important drivers and characteristics of those with future CEO potential and how to identify them. Interviewees were asked about related issues including whether CEOs are born or made, and what differences there are between men and women aspiring for the CEO role.

Research indicates a key reason why teams fail is that many employees are ill-prepared to make the transition from individual contributor to team member. One of the fundamentals to developing high performing teams is to understand that successful teams do not simply happen. They take much effort and time. They take proper guidance and support from the team leader. They require an organizational culture which enable and fosters team work.

When compared to Korn/Ferry’s T7 Model of Team Effectiveness to other models, it was discovered that the T7 Model was one of the most (if not the most) comprehensive views of team effectiveness in the scientific literature.

As 2010 approaches, many organizations are anticipating the likelihood of renewing their hiring efforts. Before they begin, they must prepare to enter a decade where they will face new realities and new challenges brought upon by the economic upheaval of the preceding years. Some changes will provide opportunities while others will prove more vexing. Here is a look at eight likely occurrences, their probable impact on hiring efforts and how you can take action to best position your organization for success.

We have long been accustomed to the Western expatriate assuming leadership positions in multinational companies in Asia. The rise of Asian leaders taking on senior roles at the corporate level has undoubtedly been a slower journey. Why is this so? What skills and competencies do Asian executives require to be more international? Will we eventually see a trend towards a more globalised workforce in the future, and what are companies doing in Asia to prepare their local talent to be placed in international roles?

This paper seeks to answer some of these questions by conducting a survey of top companies in Asia Pacific and delving into one of the methods of developing talent: international assignments.

Several diverse streams of research support different elements of the 720° approach to executive coaching. This paper explores the research foundations that contribute to both the inside-out and outside-in coaching methodologies that make up our approach. Our model is reflective of where coaching is moving as a field of practice – toward methodologies that are integrative, multi-disciplinary, and deeply embed executive and coach in an intense, collaborative experience.

With 83% of major Canadian boards now separating the roles of chair and CEO, there has been an increased focus on board leadership as one of the most important factors determining board effectiveness. While undertaking hundreds of board and director assessments and searches over the past fifteen years, Patrick O’Callaghan and Associates and Korn/Ferry International have consistently found that the boards operating most effectively have exceptional board chair leadership. Conversely, when a board is struggling, poor board leadership is inevitably one of the problems. The board chair has an enormous impact on board performance and exercises significant discretionary influence over both the board and management.

The objective of this survey was to better understand how Canadian boards plan for the succession of the board chair. Korn/Ferry International and Patrick O’Callaghan and Associates surveyed 185 directors across Canada during the spring and summer of 2009 soliciting their comments and views regarding board chair succession planning.

What a difference a year makes. Much of 2009 was dominated by what was called the ‘the next big crash after 1932.’ Fourteen months since the fall of Lehman Brothers, global economic sentiment is on a rise and business vernacular is peppered with terms like "green shoots" and "stunning recovery."

To better understand the critical issues faced by organizations in their talent strategies, Korn/Ferry invited a select group of CEOs and senior executives to a roundtable discussion in Singapore to discuss the impact of the impending recovery on organizations at large, the effects of the crisis on their businesses, their level of preparedness and their resultant priorities.

The current economic environment has ushered in new expectations for leaders – from increased scope of responsibility to heavier workloads to making decisions in more ambiguous conditions. Have these different expectations affected the set of skills that make a great leader?

This paper explores whether certain leadership competencies are increasing or decreasing in importance and skill level in the current economic climate. In addition, based on our analysis of the data, this paper provides a perspective on the leadership skills that could matter most for leadership development in the coming year.

Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, written by Korn/Ferry's Kenneth P. De Meuse and Guangrong Dai, examines the effectiveness and ROI of executive coaching.

The reality of deflated retirement savings accounts may be causing global executives to re-evaluate how long they stay in the workforce. A spring 2009 Executive Quiz released by The Korn/Ferry Institute reveals that a majority – 52 percent – of executives plan to retire at age 64 or higher, a jump of eight percent compared with results collected in 2004 when Korn/Ferry last surveyed executives about retirement plans.

Regardless of retirement age, the survey results reveal that the majority (63 percent) of executives are planning to work later in life than they expected just three years ago. Only 25 percent of executive respondents have not changed their retirement expectations recently. When asked if their company provides adequate retirement benefits, 53 percent of executives said no, 39 percent said yes and a surprising eight percent said they were not sure of their company’s retirement program.

Methodology
The Korn/Ferry International Executive Quiz is based on a global survey of executives registered within the firm’s online Executive Center, ekornferry.com. Respondents from 70 countries, representing a wide spectrum of industries and functional areas, participated in the most recent Executive Quiz in April and May 2009.

In early 2009, The Korn/Ferry Institute launched a new thought leadership series called Korn/Ferry's Career Playbook: Winning Strategies in Today's Job Market to address executive job seekers's most frequent and pressing questions.

The fifth article in this series highlights the importance of managing your references. Understanding how recruiters use references can help you choose and prepare the most appropriate people to speak about you as a person and a professional. In this article, the experts at Korn/Ferry describe how they find and work with the most solid referrals possible.

The global demand for metals and other basic resources continues to increase steadily despite the recent downturn in the world economy. Factors driving demand include population growth and rising living standards and expectations, particularly in underdeveloped and quickly developing countries.

But while the broad macroeconomic outlook is bright for the mining industry and its leaders, the demand outlook also presents a mixed blessing for the industry. Companies, in their drive to create value, are being forced to search for new resources in more difficult environments where they are presented with a host of sociopolitical, environmental and regulatory issues and challenges that many have not encountered before.

This whitepaper is based upon a series of interviews conducted by Korn/Ferry with mining CEOs, board directors and senior executives in operations and human resources, focusing on their most pressing issues – both now and into the future. These discussions offer insights into how companies can be proactive in addressing the variety of challenges facing the mining industry.

The growing economic and political influence of the Hispanic market represents a crucial crosscurrent for U.S. companies in all sectors. Hispanic directors can provide the perspective needed to ensure that companies take advantage of revenue-growth, talent management and relevant community partnership opportunities.

This whitepaper written by the co-chairs of Korn/Ferry's Hispanic Business Initiative addresses the $1.2 trillion issue of Hispanic representation on U.S. boards. By focusing squarely on the business and governance implications of the Hispanic representation gap within the ranks of U.S. publicly held corporations, the paper helps nominating committee members and other corporate directors understand and capitalize on the opportunities.

As outsourcing's global reach and implementation steadily expand, boosting the demand for outsourcing executives, outsourcing firms will need to consider candidates well outside the typical competitive landscape. Although the traditional companies remain a viable target for talent, new Korn/Ferry research suggests that key skills and capabilities can be acquired outside of the industry and then honed into productive outsourcing leadership competencies.

Entitled Tapping New Sources of Executive Outsourcing Talent, this paper seeks to equip outsourcing firms with a better understanding of what to look for, and where to look, when hiring outsourcing executives by comparing emerging scientific studies of the emotional profiles and thinking styles of successful outsourcing executives.

In the aftermath of the global financial turmoil, companies today find themselves operating in an environment where the old fashioned values of discipline, accountability and sustainability are back in favour.

Managing Against the Wind by Korn/Ferry's Andrew Tsui (Hong Kong) and Mina Hsu of Mina Hsu Consulting, provides insight from twelve senior management executives, representing financial services, communications, real estate, construction, utilities, retail and consumer products on the factors that have helped companies navigate the current economic downturn. They also share the key management lessons they learned in the wake of the financial crisis, and their views on the lasting legacy of the crisis.