Business Leadership Landscape Changing?

Is the face of American Business Leadership changing? The elements are in place and in motion according to several leading business professors. But it doesn’t mean overnight change, and there are still obstacles for many to that elusive corner office or powerful business position.

There’s a new book that disects the rise to power in America, Paths to Power: How Insiders and Outsiders Shaped American Business Leadership. The authors are Harvard Business School‘s Anthony J. Mayo and Nitin Nohria, and Boston College‘s Laura G. Singleton.

In their book, they indicate that the change occurring is not just the ability to adapt to a global marketplace, the exponential rate of change in technology, and myriad integrated communication platforms. They identify fundamental principles of status that are consistently present in the world of rising power. Birthplace, nationality, religion, education, social class, gender and race. These are the seven factors the authors deconstruct in Paths to Power.

The book explores how these factors, have either provided a supportive platform for, or created obstacles to individuals in their quest for power. You can find a great interview and an inside look at what these authors have accomplished in the newsletter, Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge for Business Leaders.

In short, the authors present examples of what they define as the inside track to power (privileged families) and the outside track (ie. foreigners, women, African-Americans). They also introduce the idea that those in that outside track do not necessarily fit into the overcame-obstacles-and-chaos mold, but instead were simply hard-nosed business people who use a little perseverance, determination and had influential benefactors or mentors to help them achieve success.

With the predicted increasing diversity in the arena of business leadership, it is worth noting that the authors bring attention to the places where the least progress has occurred; social class, gender and race. They state that less than 5 percent of the Fortune 500 companies are headed by a woman or non-white man. For example, while women now represent 40 percent of MBA degree recipients, and might impact the future of that corner office, there’s clearly a long way to go.

Paths to Power does a service. It statistically shows us that as Americans, many can truly achieve greatness with hard work. But it also underscores how much work we have yet to do regarding inclusion. The willingness to understand and accept people with different beliefs, faith systems and ideologies, AND the wisdom to know that those who believe differently from us, might have a wealth of knowledge to offer.