The rise of private power: Why we need to enlist an army of corporate diplomats

March 12, 2012
Posted on Periscope Post

By: Cari E. Guittard

Corporate diplomacy involves a unique combination of critical skillsets that are essential for effective leadership in global business.

Bill Gates, Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, attends the opening session of the Millennium Development Goals Advocacy Group Meeting. 22 September 2010. Photo credit: United Nations, New York.

I was struck this week by a pair of featured articles in this month’s Foreign Policy magazine, Inside Power, Inc and Supercitizens & Semistates by David Rothkopf, which detailed how top companies on the Forbes Global 2000 list stack up against many countries around the globe.

The massive reach, resources, and influence of the private sector – including companies and NGOs – “dwarf all but the largest governments and even wealthy governments are struggling with overwhelmed bureaucracies, budget crises, and plummeting confidence in government,” noted Rothkopf, who used statistics to help frame the imbalance of public versus private power. Some were pretty astounding. Sales revenues of Wal-Mart, the world’s largest companyare higher than the GDPs of all but 25 countries; at 2.1 million, its employees outnumber the populations of nearly 100 nations. BlackRock, the world’s largest investment manager manages $3.5 trillion in assets – greater than the national reserves of any country on the planet. In 2010, The Gates Foundation, the $33.5 billion-endowed private philanthropic organisation, distributed more money to worldwide causes than the World Health Organization had in its annual budget.

Most large, multi-national companies have their own internal foreign policies and strategies, crafted in large part to help them address geopolitical challenges, respond to crises, and navigate the web of governments, NGOs and local influencers they come into contact on a daily basis. To be successful and competitive in the long run, the private sector must manage global issues with numerous geographic and geopolitical challenges with creativity and dexterity, re-defining traditional notions of global engagement and public diplomacy along the way. A hybrid form of Smart Power on steroids.

Few companies share these internal strategies and even fewer distill out and share lessons learned publicly. Most corporate diplomats who lead much of this work do so on an ad hoc basis, under the radar, with little or no resources, training, and development. Few business schools and executive education programs offer courses in corporate diplomacy even though the nature of global business is increasingly dependent upon working effectively across sectors. Corporate diplomacy involves a unique combination of critical skillsets that are essential for effective leadership in global business. If we are ever to achieve a balance between public and private power, as Rothkopf urges, we will need private sector leadership to collectively and openly come together, recognise the critical role of corporate diplomacy and tri-sector engagement, and begin enlisting and training an army of current and future corporate diplomats. Starting Now.

EMPIRE OF THE SUN -- Recent USC CPD Post

July 2010

Film Clip:
http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/index.php/newswire/cpdblog_detail/empire_of_the_sun/

I’m finally cleaning out and catching up with my Netflix queue, working on a relationship I’ve neglected for far, far too long. As a foreign and political film junkie, I may be one of the few people my age who has only just watched Empire of the Sun , the 1987 Spielberg film initially set in 1940s Shanghai, where a group of privileged and protected Westerners have built their lives in China since the British first arrived in the early 19th Century.

Based on J. G. Ballard's autobiographical novel, the film follows a British boy, Jim “Jamie” Graham, who, after being separated from his parents, is captured by the Japanese and taken to the Soo Chow confinement camp. Stripped of every comfort and surrounded by sickness, disease, and death, Jim attempts to rebuild his former life, while bringing hope and dignity to those around him. The film is ultimately about survival, the enduring strength of the human spirit, and the idea that even in times of war, we all have more things in common than the ones which separate us.

I was profoundly and deeply moved by this film. In part, I was drawn in by Spielberg’s visual imagery and layering. At every turn I felt as though I were there, witnessing history unfold. The underlying themes and cross-cultural nuances throughout, though, are what truly left an indelible impression.

From the very beginning, I was struck by the excellent manners young Jim possessed. He was composed, observant, sensitive to others needs, incredibly self aware, and treated everyone with dignity and respect. Let me repeat that – he treated everyone with dignity and respect. His most outward displays of sensitivity, deference and respect are shown in several poignant scenes with his Japanese captors. He takes several tense, potentially violent moments and diffuses them with the flair of a seasoned diplomat when he smiles broadly and genuinely, speaks in Japanese, and bows to the ground. He stays bowing until the Japanese give him instruction to rise. At another particularly moving point, while observing the Kamikaze rituals, he salutes and begins singing with the pilots.

The timing of watching Empire of the Sun is rather appropriate, as I am due to deliver remarks at the International Protocol Officers Annual Education Conference in Long Beach, CA at the end of this month. It is always an intimidating thing to be surrounded by an audience of protocol and etiquette professionals, especially for a native Texan. But I never miss a chance to be with them, as I love the energy of this group and their almost evangelical approach to their craft. I wish more were aware of the power of protocol and etiquette – traditional vestiges of diplomacy, and an area many consider to be within the soft power realm. I touched on this in my prior post, ' The Five Tool Corporate Diplomat', but I feel compelled to underscore the importance of protocol and etiquette as essential global skills, which are absolutely critical to building trust and operating effective cross-culturally.

Which brings me back to young Jim in the film. Jim was born into a privileged, global elite, which was well versed and schooled in the ways of the world and how to operate within the echelons of power. Many will look at that film and even at modern practitioners of diplomacy, etiquette and protocol, and say that understanding such cross-cultural nuance and learning how to deftly navigate oneself in a global environment is passé in a world where technology, access and speed are pre-eminent.

If one delves deeper, though, in any environment – whether government, corporate, or societal – where power and influence are concentrated, successful relationships develop slowly over time and are carefully crafted by how one positions and maneuvers within such structures. Access is granted and influence developed by those who are able to operate effectively, with sensitivity, respect, and acute awareness of those around them. This is where etiquette and protocol, or in plain English, good old fashioned manners, make all the difference. Why then are so few young people, especially Americans, educated systematically in the art and craft of protocol and etiquette? In a globalized world where we are all increasingly competing with the world for jobs, positioning and influence, these skills should be part of every child’s basic education.

“Amatus sum, amatus es, amatus est”

Towards the end of the film we hear Jim reciting the Latin phrase “Amatus sum, amatus es, amatus est." Translated, it means: I am loved, you are loved, he/she is loved. The phrase (and more broadly, the film) speaks to the universality of the human condition and how each of us possesses the capacity to bring grace, humility, courage, and hope to those we engage with every day. It’s a lesson we should all embrace.


For additional related research, resources and insights, visit: http://thefivetoolexecutive.blogspot.com/