Leadership Without Borders: Successful Strategies from World-Class Leaders, Cohen, 2007

In this book, Ed Cohen addresses what current and future leaders need to know about how to be a successful global leader in today’s world. It addresses the changing marketplace as a result of economic globalization and identifies important trends such as increased web-enabled communication and international travel. Consequently, Cohen describes the important effects that these changes have had on leadership as individuals work internationally and gives suggestions based on them. The motive for writing this book is from Cohen’s personal experience as he wanted to learn how to be successful in his role as head of Satyan School of Leadership when he moved to India. He struggled with the learning curve and realized that the leadership he had used at home no longer worked when emerged with a multinational environment. Therefore, this book is a product of his observations and research on discovering successful world-class leadership. The book consists of two parts; firstly it identifies global leadership competencies and secondly it discusses successful strategies (specific examples) from world-class leaders. The specific global leadership competencies also come from a variety of survey respondents, interviews, best practices, and leader profiles. It also uses personal stories and insight to demonstrate his findings. Several examples of global leaders which he interviewed are Erna Adelson (Sony Electronics) and Siow Choon-Neo (Federal Express Pacific, Inc.).
The emergence of the knowledge economy has changed the role of leaders in a vastly changing business environment which is now heavily multinational. The significance of this book is to identify how to approach being a successful global leader among these changes. For example, the way people work has changed so that working is instantaneous; and how geography is no longer a constraint due to technology. Based on these observations, Cohen advises the reader on how they can realistically approach the business environment of today. The major contribution is demonstrating that major importance of effective leadership and their behaviour. He observes that these world-class leaders are entrepreneurial and innovative and recognizes that the demand for such leaders is increasing. Mainly, it is Cohen’s insight on a leader’s global vision and local implementation which captures a large audience.
One interesting concept was an example of practical implementation of his insights to the workplace. Cohen acknowledges two types of leaders, those that use the best talent and those that develop the best talent. He notes that in order to reduce barriers to success there must be a shift from geographic, market and organizational-specific competencies towards global competencies such as worldview and global business acumen.
Another interesting concept is his discussion surrounding the lack of human connections, that “building sustainable and diverse networks is one of the main challenges leaders face today,” (Cohen). Cohen believes than global leaders can be built if they know how to maximize opportunities when traveling the globe, which will separate them from other leaders.