Globalization

Supply chain management is all about software and systems, right? Put in the best technology, sit back, and watch as your processes run smoothly and the...

Position your company for global success.

A major shift is occurring in the nature of global competition, but it’s widely misunderstood. Emerging markets are no longer competing solely on price—by offering the lowest-cost manufacturing, for instance. Rather, they are increasingly competing with sophisticated skills in key sectors like health care, software, entertainment, consumer products, and manufacturing. They’re leveraging a fast-growing ability […]

As established markets become less profitable, companies increasingly need to find ways to create and capture new markets. Despite much investment and...

Expanding a brand into new countries takes careful planning. These five tips can help you take your brand global by leveraging its power while also accommodating...

Experts have been predicting a shift away from global trade, but recent data suggest otherwise.

The new commercial reality is the emergence of global markets for standardized consumer products on a previously unimagined scale of magnitude. Technology,...

Executives should consider four key ideas.

Today, most multinationals have a conspicuous social conscience. They publicize their internal codes of conduct, monitor labor conditions in their global supply chains, and require suppliers to meet basic labor practice standards. But despite efforts to be better global citizens, companies by themselves are unable to eliminate abuses in their supply chains. In fact, so […]

Where momentum is picking up, and where it's stalling out.

So far, 2011 has been a remarkable year. With events like those that have changed the power dynamics throughout the Arab world, or the tsunami in Japan...

Four long-term risks to prepare for.

And other things your company should care about this year.

The first wave of foreign direct investment in China, in the 1980s, mostly took the form of joint ventures. A second wave followed in the 1990s in the form of greenfield wholly foreign-owned enterprises (WFOEs). Now a third wave of foreign direct investment—cross-border mergers and acquisitions—is gaining strength. Consider the forces driving this third wave. […]

Global companies that create and institutionalize a systematic framework for assessing risk will be the ones best positioned to capitalize on China's...

Chinese business culture is unique, but not in all the ways outsiders tend to assume. To identify the most common myths, we interviewed dozens of North American and European expats as well as some Chinese managers now working in the West, all of whom have spent at least three years doing business in China. Our […]

In his book and TV series Commanding Heights, Daniel Yergin traces the arc of globalization, illuminating the vitality of market capitalism and the unpredictability...

This package begins with "What the West Gets Wrong About China," by Rana Mitter and Elsbeth Johnson, which discusses three fundamental misconceptions:...

Like many other companies, GE under Immelt had to figure out how to balance serving local needs with the economies of worldwide scale. Harvard Business...

The past year has brought a rush of interest among academics in how sensory inputs influence consumers on deep, non-conscious levels--and companies are...