Nurturing Immigrant Leaders And Innovators: Why And How

By James Barrood

Many leaders sense that immigrant employees can help their organizations accelerate innovation — and their intuitions align with the evidence. A comprehensive study of one million+ inventors found that immigrants were substantially over-represented and created more valuable inventions than the median inventor, too. But immigrant success doesn’t just happen, and throwing the doors open to a more global workforce doesn’t guarantee it. Like everyone else, emerging immigrant leaders and innovators must be nurtured. Nurturing immigrants can present unique challenges, but it’s an eminently solvable problem.