Could a global mindset – thinking and acting globally – be an essential element for success in our new, globalizing world? Global leadership experts agree that it is.

Last fall, right after Hurricane Sandy and during the howling Nor’easter that followed, I had the privilege to attend the Fall Institute program presented by WomenCorporateDirectors(WCD). This was an impressive and inspiring gathering of about 100 senior women leaders from a wide variety of business, academic, government and philanthropic organizations coming together for an intense “deep dive” day and a half on critical issues such as big data (explored in several earlier blog posts), key global trends and how to get ahead of them, and the evolving landscape of executive pay and the role of the Comp Committee. As I listened to the panelists and participated in the discussions I was struck not only by the depth, breadth, vision and quality of the dialogue, but also by the numerous explicit and implicit opportunities identified and needs expressed that proactive HR executives could help them think about. Most of these linked directly or indirectly to the big data “megatrend” that permeated the whole meeting. Some of these are neither new, nor difficult to spot – in fact many HR leaders are probably already actively involved with these topics. But for those who aren’t, or who would welcome a fresh “conversation starter” idea, here are four things I came away with and the questions they raised:

The importance of a strategic rewards function has elevated significantly in the past several years and has become a key factor in ensuring the long-term viability and competitiveness of the business.  Many companies are reshaping the rewards function in response to changes in the economic landscape, including shifts in the financial markets and significant regulatory changes.  Across industry, the rewards function has evolved from a function that provides data and competitive information to one that is business and insight-driven, requiring complex analytics to drive recommended changes. Today’s Head of Rewards is the lead architect for a company’s incentive framework and philosophy and key contributor to the overall talent management architecture.

It comes as no surprise that most of my conversations about analytics talent of late are focused on the question of acquisition – How do I find the right person? But talent acquisition is only part of the story. Successful companies today need to also build a talent strategy that focuses equally, if not more so, on retention. Still, I’ve been surprised to learn how few companies are focused on it. 

If you followed the US Presidential election (even from a distance), workplace and leadership diversity was a theme commonly addressed throughout the campaign.  As a result, one of the key discussions now among public and private leadership centers on their ability to build a gender and ethnically diverse coalition.