Best Companies for Leaders

The Gretzky Principle
While companies focus on managing their pipelines, they also have to worry about future demand. Wayne Gretzky’s famous dictum about skating not to where the puck is but to where the puck will be applies. Factors such as outsourcing, changes to operating models, and the demands of emerging markets compel companies to anticipate what kind of leaders they will need in the future. To this point, less than half of the respondents (46 percent) report that talent management at their organizations is led by in-depth analyses of roles that they will need to fill in the future. Such uncertainty risks pipeline mismatches.

For his part, Immelt sees GE’s biggest development challenge as developing talent outside of the U.S. In 2007, for the first time, more than half of GE’s revenues came from outside the U.S. “As an American I grew up knowing GE, but the challenge for me-what I spend time thinking about-is how in the context of an ever-increasing global franchise do we reach the next generation of people outside the U.S. that we can bring into the company?” Someday, although perhaps not in his lifetime, Immelt predicts a future GE CEO may not even be an American. P&G’s Lafley is somewhat bolder on this point. “The last time we looked, 40-plus percent of our top team is not American, which is unprecedented for a company in the Fortune 50. We have a global footprint. Being a consumer-oriented business, we’re less interested in academic credentials. It’s more how well you do in practical jobs and practical applications,” he says.

“We are a pure meritocracy. We don’t care where you went to school, whether you have an MBA, or what your country of origin is. We have more than 100 different countries represented in our management team,” Lafley continues. “All we care about is that with character and integrity you deliver outstanding business results and that you build a strong organization. Do that and you move ahead.”