Korn/Ferry International - IMA India leadership study

Indian Execs as Strategic as Best in Class Leaders in the West, but More Hierarchical, Like Their Counterparts in Asia.

Korn/Ferry International (NYSE:KFY), a premier global provider of talent management solutions, today announced the early findings of a study of C-level executives in India conducted in association with International Market Assessment (IMA) India, a boutique research firm. Utilizing Korn/Ferry's unique Strategic Management Assessment process, approximately 100 top Indian executives from IMA's India CEO Forum and India CFO Forum were evaluated to gauge how their leadership styles compare to the "best in class" profiles of over top executives in North America. Interestingly, the Indian leaders assessed demonstrated remarkably different leadership styles and emotional competencies from their western counterparts, while proving to be just as strategic in terms of their decision-making and thinking styles.

"While India is well-known for its entrepreneurial and highly-educated talent base, more and more attention is being paid to how it will continue to develop its intellectual and managerial talent and management practices in order to achieve a global standard," said Mr. Paul Reilly, chairman, Korn/Ferry International. "Current styles may be appropriate for the traditional and fast-evolving Indian business environment, however, as Indian firms continue to globalize, they will need to develop new competencies appropriate for the world stage."

Findings of the KFI-IMA Indian Leadership Study

Indian Leaders Exhibit "Task-Focused" and "Intellectual" Styles Similar to Executives in the Four Dragon Countries: Korn/Ferry's assessment model measures how leaders present themselves to those they want to influence, i.e., their "leadership style." The Firm's assessment work internationally has found that as managers move up through an organization, they typically adopt less formal leadership styles to encourage knowledge sharing and cooperation. The study shows a significant difference between the leadership styles of C-level Indian executives and their North American counterparts, however, indicating that they are much more task-focused and intellectual and less social and participative. In other words, they are more hierarchical and less concerned about building consensus. In this way, Indian leaders ranked most closely to executives assessed earlier from the "Four Dragons" countries (Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan).

Strategic Decision-Making and Thinking Styles Bode Well for Indians on the Global Stage: How managers use information and make decisions are based on habits formed through experience, and these "thinking styles" are expressed when an executive is alone. The study revealed that Indian executives were highly action-focused, complex and creative, which means they make decisions considering many options with a focus on high-quality. In other words, they are strategic "� in fact, they are as strategic as Western best-in-class executives. This bodes well as focusing on strategic vision was listed as the most critical Western leadership practice for Asian companies seeking to "go global" to embrace, according to another Korn/Ferry survey conducted with the Economist Intelligence Unit last year.

Emotional Competencies Key to Success in the Long Term: The Indian execs' emotional competencies diverged the most from those in the West, ranking lower in terms of ambiguity tolerance, empathy, energy and confidence, all of which impact their interpersonal communication and ability to access information, which is a key to success.

About the Study

Between December 2006 and June 2007, Korn/Ferry International and IMA India assessed 100 top management executives drawm from IMA India's client base of The India CEO Forum and The India CFO Forum, using Korn/Ferry International's proprietary assessment methodology. Analysis of the study findings was conducted by Decision Dynamics, LLC. The study is one component of a partnership between Korn/Ferry and IMA India to foster discussion about the future potential of India's business leaders.

Of those surveyed:

§ 95 % were men and 5 % were women; and

§ 44 % were CEOs, with 56% holding other C-level roles (e.g., CFO, Head of Marketing, etc.) across a wide range of industries.