HCM City (VNA) - It will take another five to 15 years for Vietnamese entrepreneursto become global business leaders, according to a study by the Human CapitalLeadership Institute.

The study, “Leadership Mosaics across Asia,” sought to discover the differentways of leadership in Asia based on the in-depth conversational interviews with165 top executives in nine countries -- China, India, Indonesia, Japan,Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

It found that while Vietnam’s business leaders are able and adept at dealingwith situations of volatility, their general lack of exposure to other culturesand approaches hampers their potential for global leadership.

Speaking at a panel discussion in HCM City last week, Su-Yen Wong, HCLI’s CEO,said there are four very important factors in assessing the readiness ofemerging Vietnamese leaders to become global leaders.

The first is being able to deal with complexity because regional and globalroles are much more complex and ambiguous.

The second factor is the ability to build relationships across external andinternal organisational boundaries.

The third factor is the ability to adapt.

“When you take on a regional or global role, regardless of where you are, youneed to work with different types of people, with differentstyles, different assumptions, different histories; so you need to be ableto adapt cross-culturally.”

The fourth factor in becoming a regional and global leader is the personalaspiration to move across borders.

Talking of the advantages Vietnamese business leaders possess, she said “One ofthe aspects that Vietnamese leaders do very well based on our research is theability to drive complexity. This is something that

Vietnamese leaders should focus on leveraging as they go into other markets toexpand their businesses.”

Tieu Yen Trinh, CEO of Talentnet, said there has been a good evolution ofhigh-level human resources in the past five years, with an increase in thenumber of Vietnamese taking up high positions in large foreign companies inVietnam.

But Vietnamese need some more time to accumulate experience to take on regionaland global roles, she said.

To become global business leaders, the first step is recognising the importanceof being global, having global experience and developing a global mindset,Su-Yen said.

The second is being open to various kinds of experiences, which could berelocation or working on regional projects, and this can help learn how tobecome adaptable, she said.

Pham Hong Hai, CEO of HSBC Vietnam, saying leaders need to be positive andpersistent with their vision and purpose, called on Vietnamese to connect andsupport each other to go global.

Attendees said as Vietnam continues to integrate globally, it is imperativethat its senior business leaders prioritise corporate governance, professionalmanagement, employee up-skilling and scaling up their business effectively.

Praneeth Yendamuri, managing director of Kimberly-Clark Vietnam and Indochina,said while it may be some time before Vietnamese global leaders emerge andachieve critical mass, senior executives should focus on leadership developmentand take accountability for building the next level of leaders.

Trinh said Vietnamese are very talented, intelligent, hardworking and willingto learn.

Young Vietnamese leaders should strengthen their regional and global networksand visit other countries to be more confident about connecting with the world,she said.-VNA