Case Study- Managing in a Borderless World
Reading 1-2 Managing in a Borderless World
Most managers are nearsighted. Even though today’s competitive landscape often stretches to a global horizon, they see best what they know best: the customers geographically closest to home. They may have factories or laboratories in a dozen countries and joint ventures in a dozen more. They may source materials and sell in market all over the world, but their field of vision is dominated by home-country customers and the organizational units that serve them. Everyone and everything else is simply part of “the rest of the world.”
This nearsightedness is not intentional. No manager purposefully plans or implements an astigmatic strategy. But few managers consciously try to set plans and build organizations as if they saw all key customers equidistant from the corporate center. Whatever the trade figures show, home markets are usually in focus and overseas market are not.
Effective global operations require a genuine equidistance of perspective. But even with the best will in the world, managers find the kind of vision hard to develop. And harder to maintain.
It may be unfamiliar and awkward, but the primary rule of equidistance is to SEE and THINK global first.
If you have a manufacturing divisions in Japan, North America and Europe – all three legs of the Triad – your managers do not think or act as if the company were divided between home country and overseas operations. The word overseas has no place in the vocabulary of the company because the corporation sees itself as equidistant from all key-customer. You top managers should gather information directly from each of their – primary market and then sit down together to develop a revised plan for global product development.
There is no single best way to avoid overcome nearsightedness. An equidistant perspective can take many forms. However manager do it, however they get there, building a value system that emphasizes seeing and thinking
Most managers are nearsighted. Even though today’s competitive landscape often stretches to a global horizon, they see best what they know best: the customers geographically closest to home. They may have factories or laboratories in a dozen countries and joint ventures in a dozen more. They may source materials and sell in market all over the world, but their field of vision is dominated by home-country customers and the organizational units that serve them. Everyone and everything else is simply part of “the rest of the world.”
This nearsightedness is not intentional. No manager purposefully plans or implements an astigmatic strategy. But few managers consciously try to set plans and build organizations as if they saw all key customers equidistant from the corporate center. Whatever the trade figures show, home markets are usually in focus and overseas market are not.
Effective global operations require a genuine equidistance of perspective. But even with the best will in the world, managers find the kind of vision hard to develop. And harder to maintain.
It may be unfamiliar and awkward, but the primary rule of equidistance is to SEE and THINK global first.
If you have a manufacturing divisions in Japan, North America and Europe – all three legs of the Triad – your managers do not think or act as if the company were divided between home country and overseas operations. The word overseas has no place in the vocabulary of the company because the corporation sees itself as equidistant from all key-customer. You top managers should gather information directly from each of their – primary market and then sit down together to develop a revised plan for global product development.
There is no single best way to avoid overcome nearsightedness. An equidistant perspective can take many forms. However manager do it, however they get there, building a value system that emphasizes seeing and thinking