With the gigantic rise of Asia and the growing presence of multinational companies in the region, what are the leadership prospects for Generation Y in this region? Will Asia’s youth lead or will they simply follow the trends that face them? Aabha Gandhi explores the challenges confronting Asia’s Generation Y.    

Attractive East

It's a busy sight in the Central Business District in Singapore. Young business executives are walking briskly to their offices with coffee in one hand and mobile phone in the other. There is an amalgamation of different cultures, something that is not just unique to Singapore, but is a common sight across major financial hubs in the Asia Pacific region.

Today, Asia is the hottest destination for investment, and the growing focus on the region has made Asia the new hub, bringing with it an influx of young talent. The talent moving from the West to the East, and the Generation Y that is already present, will have the opportunity to experience economies that are in rapid growth, which is quite difficult to find these days in the West. This exposure will help them get exposed to the business and cultural realities within Asia.

This new movement trend, explains Mario Ferraro, Director, Deloitte Consulting Pte Ltd, “Reflects an acknowledgement of the fact that the East is becoming increasingly important from a global perspective.”

Adding to this, Narayan Pant, Professor of Management Practice, Director, INSEAD Advance Management Programme, says, “The best Asians have been going to the US and Europe for 60 years and they have been competing in the market place. Why should you be surprised that when the growth opportunities happen here, the world wants to come here? I think there is an unalloyed positive in [this movement].”  

Initiatives across the Region

Despite having a large talent pool, demand outstrips supply in Asia. Understanding this challenge, businesses have for some time invested heavily in leadership development programmes and continue to set up leadership academies in order to ensure a healthy leadership pipeline.

For instance, Swiss bank UBS continues to run extensive training programmes for its workforce. “We have a Business University in UBS. It is an initiative that UBS made five years ago to develop its employees and also offer knowledge sharing with clients,” says Ms Patricia Enslow, Managing Director and Head of Marketing Asia Pacific, UBS Wealth Management. In addition, UBS has a robust program for its client's next generation, designed to inculcate the values and responsibilities of wealth. Enslow highlights that successful companies are those, which are genuinely interested to develop its employees, demonstrate care for their careers and personal development. Invariably, these companies will attract the right kind of people who will help create a successful and stimulating outcome.

Microsoft, too, runs several programmes across the globe that nurture and train Generation Y. Microsoft Academy of College Hires (MACH) is the corporation’s talent development initiative.

“What we have done very recently is to hire graduates from around Southeast Asia. They come to Singapore for the first part of their internship programme and [are] then sent back to the country they came from,” says Ms Fiona Mullan, Microsoft APAC HR Senior Director.

This six months internship program in Singapore makes these graduates – be they Thai, Vietnamese or, Indonesian – part of a start group. “It is a very powerful thing to see from where I am sitting, because if you see them after five years as managers of different parts of business it will be very interesting to see where they land,” adds Mullan.  

A Change of Leadership Style Needed

According to Ferraro, it is still common in many Asian companies to see leaders who manage business with the traditional “command and control” style that can stifle creativity and flair, and which – in turn – affects productivity. However, according to Ferraro, this is now changing: “We have seen some great ideas coming out of Asian countries such as Japan and Korea for several decades, and we are beginning to see these emerge from China and Singapore too.”

Despite the “command and control” challenge, the youth of Asia remain optimistic. Ms Connie Wang, from China and a recent MBA graduate from INSEAD, explains that many young Asians with international exposure join local Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and bring with them a culture of innovation. Mr Emerson Uy from the Philippines and another recent MBA graduate from INSEAD, adds that the culture is slowly emerging. “Its one of those things that doesn't come overnight, it comes slowly,” claims Uy.  

Managing Aspirations

While the aspiration is there to grow and excel, maintaining the interest of younger workers remains a challenge. “You have to provide them [the youth] with much more opportunities, variance, diversity, just in order to keep them engaged and interested. How do you do that? There is not an easy fix to that problem,” explains Pant.

Indeed, the younger generation are frequently deemed to be both impatient and demanding. There is a larger issue of remaining true to long-term commitment and loyalty-core values that Asia’s Generation Y face.

However, organisations have for many years been working to find solutions to keep the youth more engaged by offering career development and succession planning. But, to date, there has been no single silver bullet to counter this problem. According to Ferraro, “The more mature organisations truly treat their people as the source of competitive advantage and adopt clear talent development frameworks. This requires a long-term, strategic approach to HR.” Although this may sound like a cliché, the need to adopt such systems is as true today, as it was a decade ago.  

Not Ready

“We are ready to change and be the innovator,” pronounces Wang. This upbeat and optimistic mindset is becoming more widespread amongst Asia’s Generation Y. But, there are those who are more cautious, including Uy, who explains that it is only Asians that have been exposed to the West, yet understand local values, who are the ones ready to be the region’s next leaders.

“I believe only they have the capacity to be future leaders,” says Uy.

But, raw desire could prove to be the catalyst that inspires leadership, and not necessarily on the part of those that have been exposed to the West. “Gen Y are generally hungry for new experiences and expect to learn as much as possible from each role they have. They are generally happy to accept new challenges, instead of shying away from them and they like to be empowered and trusted. When you think about it, these are all great attributes which, if properly harnessed, could shape the future generation of Asian leaders,” claims Ferraro.

The argument for whether Asia’s Generation Y are either leaders or followers is as divided as ever. On one hand, companies of all shapes and sizes have been rolling out talent development strategies that help develop future leaders – many of which have been highly successful. And, let us not forget, that from a product innovation perspective, Asians have been leading for decades. But, on the other hand, cultural barriers exist that prevent Generation Y from becoming leaders of tomorrow’s Asia.

Times are indeed changing, and so too are the attitudes of today’s youth. Therefore, a new form of leadership that merges both local and Western ways, against the backdrop of Generation Y’s impetus, looks set to emerge, as described by Enslow: “[Generation Y] will be both leaders and followers. I see the rapid emergence of young leaders in APAC who will also be the trendsetters. They will be savvy to determine when they should follow and when to lead.”

With the desire to grow and excel and the massive investments by multinationals in the region, these are interesting times for Generation Y in Asia.  

This article was first published in HQ Asia (Print) Issue 05 (2013).