Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&Co.), through its original blue jean brand, Levi’s®, has been present in the Asia-Pacific region for more than a century.

In the early years, country managers were often expatriates from more developed markets, including the brand’s home country: the USA. Over time, local talents filled these positions, so that by the late 1990s, the company could staff entire leadership teams with talents of Asian origin. Below the leadership teams, the country organisations were completely staffed by local talents.

In the last two decades, LS&Co., through its Levi’s®, Dockers®, and Signature by Levi Strauss & Co.™ brands, experienced tremendous growth across all Asian markets. Due to the rapid expansion, the rate at which the company brought in and groomed new talent for leadership positions consistently lagged behind business growth.

One consequence of playing ‘catch up’ in terms of developing people is that talents have to focus on the local business and give up opportunities on pan-Asia or global roles. Talent was ‘owned’ by the regional organisation, with opportunities to move across regions limited. Also, there was inadequate preparation given for them to operate in non-Asian environments. The entry of more international brands also increased competition for experienced talent. This made things difficult for the company, as many of these Western apparel companies found LS&Co. personnel’s balance of local empathy and operating capabilities ideal. 

Get with the Programme

In 1995, LS&Co. set up its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore, called the Levi Strauss Asia Pacific Division (LSAPD). Besides being the legal representative of the global head office, one of LSAPD’s functions was to drive business growth through recruiting and nurturing top Asian talent.

The Singapore headquarters set up the Business Leader Traineeship Program (BLTP), which aims to hire future leaders and develop them into key middle-management positions. Offering fast-track development opportunities towards general management roles, these roles work ‘in the business’, but their costs sit in the regional office. This allows the region flexibility in moving them around and giving them accelerated development assignments.

Complementing the BLTP is the Leadership Accelerated Development Program (LADP), which provides high-potential leaders an opportunity for global exposure, classroom training programmes, professional coaching and mentoring, and global networking.  

From Regional Organisations to Global Brands

In 2009, LS&Co. made a major strategic move towards a global brand-led vision. Moving from being run along the lines of regions, to global brands, the company would be restructured to run Levi’s®, Dockers®, Denizen™, and Signature™ by Levi Strauss & Co.™ on a global basis. The aim was to ensure that LS&Co. brands provide a consistent experience anywhere around the world. Regional structures were dismantled; while Levi’s® and Dockers® would be run out of San Francisco, the Denizen™ and Signature™ business would be co-headquartered in Singapore and Hong Kong.

This move saw more direct lines of communication and interaction open up between key markets and the global hubs. Local market leaders now have visibility, but this requires that the leaders now need to ‘show up’ in a way that reassures global leadership – especially since both parties are so far apart. Local leaders need to build trust and credibility with their contacts in global HQ. However, most of these local Asian leaders would have been longstanding employees with good track records. They would tend to believe that earning that trust should not be too tough. Not handling these interactions and perceptions in the right way could result in de-motivation among the Asian leaders and risk potential retention problems.

Due to LSAPD’s work over the past two decades, there is a foundation on which to draw and nurture Asian leaders who can not only work effectively with their American and European counterparts, but also take on global assignments. With the current organisational transformation to be globally brand-led, it was imperative to put in place a structured process to help key leaders ‘show up’ in a way that builds trust and credibility with the US-based leadership team.  

A Balanced Work Style

Some Asian leaders were unsure how strongly they could put forth an idea or a point of view about their local market without being seen as lacking a global mindset. They were also concerned about creating negative perceptions in the minds of US-based leaders with whom they interact with infrequently. Another concern was their communication style: just because they spoke English did not mean that they could be persuasive. Also, some of them displayed the Asian tendency to avoid ‘losing face’. Working with them on developing a balanced style – to be truly Asian yet persistent when they need arises – ensured they were not afraid to take risks.  

Many Coaching Approaches

The cultural and language diversity across Asia is a big challenge. To avoid generalising and finding commonalities where none existed, the region was clustered into Japan, Greater China, Southeast Asia, and India.

Leaders from each cluster required different coaching styles. The starting points for each of them were different, from their comfort level in expressing themselves in English to their ability to be constructively confrontational to their tenacity in getting their point across. How things are communicated became as important as what is communicated.

Whatever the approach, it needs to leverage on skills that made these leaders successful in the first place, thus building up their confidence. One method is to give timely feedback to a specific leader on his behaviour after a meeting. Another way is to review their strategic involvement in global leadership team meetings and the way they interact in formal and informal settings.

Here are three pieces of advice that many Asian leaders find useful to powerfully and positively ‘show up’ in a non-Asian environment:

1. Have a point of view and don’t be afraid to be wrong (but do your homework first).

2. Be timely with voicing your opinion – good timing is critical in making an impact.

3. Don’t apologise for legitimate areas where Asia is unique, but don’t belabour the differences. Be credible with the Asian insights.  

Case Study

KK, the Levi’s® Managing Director for Greater China, was a top talent with a proven track record. He was a leader with deep relationships with his subordinates and commanded strong loyalty. However, being low key and understated, he was not someone who made an immediate impact. Neither was he politically savvy. Regionally, he was well respected; globally, he was relatively unknown.

I needed him to ‘show up’ with an impact commensurate with his position. I started to provide real time coaching and feedback. One piece of advice he found useful was that when more senior US colleagues strongly defended their point of view, it did not necessarily mean that they had already made up their mind and were closed to alternative views. If he believed differently, he should vigorously debate his point, and work towards the best decision for the business. He should not be concerned about losing face even if the team decides not to adopt his idea. What is unacceptable is not having a point of view at all. 

I also encouraged him to be more spontaneous in expressing his views and to be timely with his input. Providing it after the team had made a decision may be pointless as the group may not be in a position to reopen the discussion, and he would have missed an opportunity to ‘show up’.

Given China’s important role in the company’s growth plans, it was critical that KK helped the global leaders get on a rapid learning curve. However, when a regional leader makes a case for why their market is unique, global leadership sometimes perceives this as a lack of support for global consistency. On the other hand, when ‘Global’ proposes a programme never before tested in that market, ‘Local’ could perceive that as a lack of understanding. These dynamics often lead to a lack of trust.

I advised KK to be fact-based when representing the market, and to make an extra effort to understand Global’s point-of-view. Also, he regularly invited global colleagues to spend time in the market, getting first-hand experience: ‘showing’ is sometimes more effective than ‘telling’. I also advised him to coach his team to not only stick to the tried and tested, but be open to new ways, even if they come from outside the market.

By doing all this, KK gained credibility, not only as a team player, but also as someone who is passionate about high performance. He is still in the early phase of this journey, yet rapidly gaining a reputation as a leader who looks for innovative ways to optimise local market opportunities while effectively garnering the appropriate support from global colleagues.  

Conclusion

Companies can help key talents by requiring senior leaders to mentor them and provide more frequent diagnostic feedback. The typical half-year and year-end performance reviews are grossly inadequate, backward looking and, too often, focused on quantitative results. This is a journey LS&Co. is still on, as the transformation is still happening. We absolutely believe that this will make us a stronger and more effective company. Superior business results will follow. In the process, we will be building a strong and sustainable pipeline of Asian general management talents, whom we can effectively deploy around the world in years to come.