MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Rethinking the East Asian Leadership Gap

The difficulty Western companies have identifying managers with leadership potential in East Asia says more about prevailing Western views of leadership than it does about available talent.

Many western multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in East and Southeast Asia bemoan the lack of local leadership talent. Several recent surveys have pointed to the scarcity of regional talent as a growth limiting factor in the Far East. But fast merging MNCs in Indonesia, South Korea, and Malaysia, as well as companies in China and Japan, don’t seem to have as much trouble finding or growing Asian leaders.