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GlobalizationA fundamental shift is occurring in the world economy. We are moving rapidly away from a world in which national economies were relatively self-contained entities, isolated from each other by barriers to cross-border trade and investment; by distance, time zones, and language; and by national differences in government regulation, culture, and business systems. And we are moving toward a world in which barriers to cross-border trade and investment are tumbling; perceived distance is shrinking due to advances in transportation and telecommunications technology; material culture is starting to look similar the world over; and national economies are merging into an interdependent global economic system. The process by which this is occurring is commonly referred to as globalization.Correspondent: Globalization has been one of the most important factors to affect business over the last twenty years. How is it different from what existed before? Companies used to export to other parts of the world from a base in their home country. Many of the connections between exporting and importing countries had a historical basis. Today, to be competitive, companies are looking for bigger markets and want to export to every country. They want to move into the global market. To do this many companies have set up local bases in different countries. Two chief executives will talk about how their companies dealt with going global. Percy Barnevik, one of the worlds most admired business leaders when he was Chairman of the international engineering group ABB and Dick Brown of telecommunications provider Cable & Wireless.Cable & Wireless already operates in many countries and is well-placed to take advantage of the increasingly global market for telecommunications. For Dick Brown globalization involves the economies of countries being connected to each other and companies doing business in many countries and therefore having multinational accounts.Dick Brown: The world is globalizing and the telecommunications industry is becoming more and more global, and so we feel were well-positioned in that market place. You see currency markets are more global tied, economies are globally connected, more so nowadays with expanded trade, more and more multinational accounts are doing business in many, many more countries. Were a company at Cable & Wireless now, well-positioned to carry the traffic and to provide the services to more and more companies that now need to get to five countries or twelve countries, were often there.Correspondent: When Percy Barnevik became head of the international engineering group ABB, his task was to make globalization work. He decided to divide the business into over a thousand smaller companies. In this way he believed the company could be both global and local. In answering the question “How do you make globalization work?”, Percy Barnevik describes the “global glue” that keeps the many different people in ABB together. He then looks at the need to manage the three contradictions of company: it is decentralized but centrally controlled, it is big and small at the same time and it is both global and local.Percy Barnevik: We have now for ten years after our big merger created a “global glue” where people are tied together, where they dont internally compete, but support each other, and you have global leaders with global responsibility and your local managers working with their profit centers, and if you have the right, so to say, agenda for these people and the right structure, you can use a scale of economy and your advantages of bigness but being small. We used to say you have three contradictions: decentralized and still centrally controlled, big and small, global and local, and, of course, to try to make these contradictions work together effectively, then I think you have a big organizational competitive edge.Correspondent: Globalizations can bring advantage to a business, but how does a company go global? Dick Brown mentions three ways companies can achieve “globalness”. Firstly, companies can work together in alliances. Secondly, they can acquire or buy other companies, and thirdly they can grow organically by expanding from their existing base.Dick Brown: Well, as you go global, and a handful or more of companies are going to really push out, in my view, to be truly global companies, and some of them, maybe all of them, will also work to be local. Theyll be local in chosen markets and global in their ability to carry their customers needs from continent A to continent B. We want to be one of the companies thats both global and local. Alliances are one way to be global, its not the only way to be global; you can acquire your way to “globalness”, you can organically grow your way to “globalness”, you can have alliances which help you get global quicker, so you take your pick.Percy Barnevik: You have to start from the top with local people who understand language, culture and so on, and I think in this global world where the East is coming up now, thats a winning recipe.Correspondent: ABB already found the winning recipe. Its theory of globalization has become the companys working practice. So how do you make theory work in practice? Percy Barnevik believes that successful globalization involves getting people to work together, overcoming national, cultural barriers and making the organization customer-driven.Percy Barnevik: You see the easy thing is to have the theory, but then to make the systems work, to make people really work together, to trust each other Americans, Europeans, Asians, to get over these national cultural barriers and create a common glue, ABB, and then make them customer-driven. If you can achieve that, and create that culture deep down then I think you have an important competitive edge.Correspondent: What Dick Brown and Percy Barnevik have shown is that there are different routes to globalization and that companies have to work hard to succeed in going global. Actually one of the disadvantages of the Global Strategy is that integrated competitive moves can lead to the sacrificing of revenues, profits, or competitive positions in individual countries especially when the subsidiary in one country is told to attack a global competitor in order to convey a signal or divert that competitors resources from another nation. The challenges managers of transnational corporations face are to identify and exploit cross-border synergies and to balance local demands with the global vision for the corporation. Building an effective transnational organization requires a corporate culture that values global dissimilarities across cultures and markets.全 球 化 世界经济正在发生根本性转变。我们正迅速告别这样一个旧世界：各国经济相对独立，相互隔绝，都是相对自给自足的经济体，因为存在跨国贸易及跨境投资的双重壁垒，时空距离和语言隔阂，因为各国在政府管制、文化体制和贸易体系方面存在诸多差异。我们正迈向这样一个新世界：跨国贸易及跨境投资的双重壁垒正在坍塌；交通运输的发达和电讯技术的进步正在缩短人们的感知距离；物质文明在世界范围内日趋相同；各国经济正在融合成一个相互依存的全球性经济体系。这个全球性经济体系正在形成的过程通常称为全球化。 记者：在过去的20年里，全球化已经成为影响贸易的最关键的因素之一。那么，当今的全球化及以前存在的情形有何不同呢？昔日，各国公司通过本国的基地向世界上的其它地区出口产品，出口国及进口国之间的许多贸易关系具有历史渊源。如今，为了具有竞争力，各国公司都在寻求规模更大的市场，切望向世界各国出口产品，渴望进入全球化市场。为此，许多公司在不同国家建立了地方性基地。今天，两位公司高管将谈谈他们的公司是如何应对全球化的，一位名叫佩尔西巴列维，曾任国际工程集团(ABB)董事长，当时被誉为世界上最受钦佩的商业领袖之一，另一位名叫迪克布朗，来自电信供应商大东电报公司( Cable & Wireless) 。大东电报公司已在许多国家运营，享有崇高地位，能够利用日益全球化的电信市场所带来的机遇。对迪克布朗而言，全球化涵盖方方面面：各国经济相互联系；跨国公司在多国开展业务，拥有跨国银行账户。 迪克布朗：当今世界正趋于全球化，电信产业亦日趋全球化，所以我们觉得我们在全球化市场中处于有利地位。你们看到，各国货币市场联系密切，更具全球性，经济实体联系紧密，涉及全球范围，如今随着贸易的扩大，更加如此，及日俱增的跨国客户在越来越多的国家开展贸易。我们是大东电信供应商的一家公司，占据优势地位，眼下越来越多的公司要进入5个甚至12个国家经营业务，我们公司为之提供电信服务和其他各种服务，有求必应。 记者：佩尔西巴列维成为国际工程集团的领头羊后，他的任务就是使公司走向全球化。他决定将公司分成1000多个子公司。他认为通过这种方式公司可能同时实现全球化和本土化。在回答“你如何让公司全球化的？”这个问题时，他描述了那种使许多不同的人凝聚在ABB的 “全球性凝聚力”，然后审视妥善处理公司三大矛盾的必要性：公司既分权又集权的矛盾，规模同时又大又小的矛盾，既要全球化又要本土化的矛盾。 佩尔西巴列维：公司大兼并之后的十年以来，我们营造了一种“全球凝聚力”，把公司员工紧紧凝聚在一起，在这种凝聚力的作用下，公司员工团结一心，内部不搞竞争，员工相互支持，出现了一批拥有全球视野、承担全球责任的业务领袖和掌管利润中心的地区经理。可以说，如果给这些人制定了正确的行动纲领和合理的结构关系，就能利用经济规模，发挥“大而小”的优势。过去我们常说你们有三大矛盾：分散管理又统一调控，规模既大又小，既要全球化，又要本土化。当然，如果努力让这些矛盾有效地调和，共生效应，那么我认为你们拥有很大的组织竞争优势。 记者：全球化能给公司带来效益，那么公司如何走向全球化呢？迪克布朗提到了公司实现全球化的三条途径：第一，公司可以结盟合作；第二，某些公司可以收购别的公司；第三，公司可从现有基础上扩大规模，从而能够有机地增长。 迪克布朗：噢，你们在走向全球化的进程中，依我看来，少数或为数不少的公司意欲大干快上，出人头地，成为真正的全球性公司。其中有些公司，或许所有这些公司，也会致力于实现本土化。它们将在选择的市场范围内成为本土化公司，而在将客户的必需品从A大陆运送至B大陆的货运能力方面会成为全球性公司。我们很想成为既全球化又本土化的公司之一。公司联手结盟是实现全球化的途径之一，但不是唯一的：公司可以通过收购的方式走向“全球化”；可以通过有机增长的方式实现“全球化”；也可联手结盟，更快地实现“全球化”。作何选择，取决于你。 佩尔西巴列维：从公司高层开始，务必任用通晓当地语言和文化等诸多情况的本地人，而且我认为，在这个东方正在崛起的全球化世界中，这是一个成功的秘诀。 记者：国际工程集团找到了成功的秘诀。公司的全球化理论已经在公司付诸实践。那么，你们如何让理论作用于实践呢？佩尔西认为，公司员工携手合作，跨越民族壁垒，克服文化障碍，并使公司践行客户至上的理念，这样才能成功实现全球化。 佩尔西巴列维：你瞧，空谈理论并不难，难的是让这些系统发挥效用，让所有员工美国人、欧洲人、亚洲人真正携手合作，互相信任，跨越民族壁垒，克服文化障碍，营造一种能把大家凝聚一起的“全球胶”，即ABB所具有的凝聚力，然后让员工践行客户至上的理念。要是这些都能做到了，创造一种根植于人们内心深处的企业文化，那么你就具备雄厚的竞争优势了。 记者：迪克布朗和佩尔西巴列维向我们说明了多种不同的实现全球化的途径：公司必须努力奋斗才能成功实现全球化。实际上，全球性战略带来的劣势之一是：综合性竞争举措可能会牺牲公司在个别国家的收入、利润或者竞争地位特别是为了传递某种信号，或为了让一个全球性竞争对手转移其在别国的资源，而让一个国家的子公司攻击那个全球性竞争对手的时候，这种劣势尤为突出。跨国公司的经理们所面临的挑战在于识别和发挥公司之间的跨国协作效率，并为了公司用全球性视野平衡本土需求。建立一家有效的跨国公司需要一种尊重全球不同文化和市场差异的企业文化。 注释 ABB集团是全球500强企业之一，集团总部位于瑞士苏黎世。ABB由两个拥有100多年历史的国际性公司瑞典的阿西亚公司（ASEA）和瑞士的布朗勃法瑞公司（BBC Brown Boveri）于1988年合并而成。这两家公司分别成立于1883年和1891年。ABB是电力和自动化技术领域的领头羊。ABB的技术可以帮助电力、公共事业和工业客户提高业绩，同时降低对环境的不良影响。ABB集团业务遍布全球100多个国家，拥有13万名员工，2010年销售额高达320亿美元。 Cable & Wireless (电缆和无线电)：英国电报公司，是英国的跨国电信公司，总部位于英国首都伦敦，经营业务的分公司设于加勒比海、澳门、巴拿马以及许多小岛。 东方国家：指欧洲以东的国家或地区，主要指中国、日本、印度。
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