Raise Your Game: Leadership Lessons From Star Wars

When Kimberly Clark's HR team approached us about bringing 47 foreign specialists to Malaysia for a critical manufacturing expansion, they expected the usual challenges: visa paperwork, regulatory compliance, and processing timelines. What they didn't expect was the leadership crisis that nearly derailed their entire project three months later. The work permits arrived on schedule. The expatriates settled into Kuala Lumpur. But by month three, productivity had dropped 35%, two senior engineers had resigned, and the local Malaysian team was requesting transfers. The problem wasn't immigration. It was integration. And it revealed a blind spot that costs Malaysian companies millions annually: the failure to lead across cultures.

Programme directors at ESMT Berlin, Dr Jens Weinmann and Bianca Schmitz share their innovation expertise and points of view on leadership with The Leaderonomics Show hosts Audrey Tong and Sarah Lim.