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Click here for his introduction.
Haegwan Kim (HK); Why did you found RBL Group?
Dave Ulrich (DU); We wanted to find a way to leverage our ideas. I personally like the challenge of listening to concerns business leaders have and then I like to try to find ways to respond to those challenges. This leads to research, writing, and speaking. But to have a real and sustainable impact, I know we need to do consulting to embed the ideas. Norm Smallwood is not only a fantastic thought leader, he has a gift for application. We want RBL to be a place for ideas with impact.
HK; What does leadership in the 21century look like? Is this different from 20th century model?
DU; I would not change by century, but leadership is always evolving. Clearly the context for leadership is changing. We live with technological innovation, social expectations, demographic changes, economic uncertainty, political shifts, and environmental sustainability. With these changes, we saw two trends in leadership thinking: [1] inside and outside. Much of the leadership thinking is inside the individual and/or the organization. We want to see leadership as it impacts customers, investors, and communities as large. [2] leader to leadership. We need great individual leaders, but we need leadership throughout a company to be sustainable. These two trends lead Norm and I to craft the idea of a leadership brand which focuses on the outside (brand) among all leaders (leadership) in a company.
HK; What is successful Human Resources today?
DU; Simply stated, HR has to create value. This means that investments in HR will deliver value inside a company to employees and to build strong organizations and outside the company with customers, investors, and communities. HR is measured by the outcomes more than the activities.
HK; As global market will continuously expand, will there be radical power shift from West to East?
DU: Power comes from resources that one party has. Globally, Asia is a resource rich global segment with markets (people), knowledge, and opportunity. We have learned, however, that Asia is not Asia … it is not uniform. China, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, etc. are all different countries in a similar region. But, the growth potential of these markets is high, so they will be a real focus going forward.
HK; As my research is the law of success, could you tell me your definition of success?
DU: Success is finding meaning from one’s activities, both professionally and personally. It is being comfortable with who you are and who you are not.
HK; What would be your advice to achieve success in general sense?
DU; Start with who you want to become and what you want to be known for. Build your investments in time and people around that desired identify.
Haegwan Kim is a writer who was born in Osaka, Japan in 1989 and grew up near Tokyo where went to a Korean school for 12 years.
