International business

There are plenty of reasons to be disappointed with the Copenhagen climate talks that start today: the meeting will not result in a binding agreement, the timeframe for such an agreement is potentially years away, and of course, neither the US nor China has committed to binding reductions. While all this is certainly disappointing, the […]

Career-oriented women are increasingly flexing their spending muscle. Here’s how companies can reach these “Golden Misses.”

In 2018, Fortune's Global 500 ranking included 111 firms headquartered in China--just a handful fewer than the United States' 126. In 1995, only three...

It’s a resurgence other countries should understand before copying.

The competitiveness of the American economy depends disproportionately on the competitiveness of its multinational corporations, especially those headquartered in the United States. During the 2000s, however, a worrisome trend appeared. The role of multinationals in the American economy declined, and their activities in the rest of the world grew faster than their activities in the […]

Beyond the devastating and saddening human costs, the earthquake in Japan is another reminder of the complexity of the world’s supply chains and the great interdependencies in global production systems. The world’s supply chains are complex and highly optimized to deliver products efficiently at the lowest cost. They are characterized by a sequential mode of […]

Why Wall Street is wrong to worry about the impact on earnings per share.

Position your company for global success.

Companies should hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

For the first 40-plus years of their existence, the federal securities laws did not require or prohibit specific managerial practices in the operation of business, other than a business in one of a handful of closely regulated industries. But with the passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, the SEC is equipped to […]

Travel and living abroad have long been seen as good for the soul. What’s perhaps less well-known is that they’re also good for the company. People who have international experience or identify with more than one nationality are better problem solvers and display more creativity, our research suggests. What’s more, we found that people with […]

Scrap metal entrepreneur Stephen Greer naively trusted his foreign partners—and lost millions to fraud. Here’s how he reclaimed his confidence and rebuilt his company.

Global teams face the challenge of having to operate with limited face-to-face contact and across vast distances, time zones, language backgrounds, and...

Back in the late 1970s, as a consultant to several Japanese computer giants, I read everything I could about Japanese business. It was all very interesting—interesting, but not particularly useful. When I became a line manager in 1981, I realized how little of what I’d read had any practical value. I couldn’t control interest rates, […]

With emerging-market giants such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China experiencing slowdowns, investors, entrepreneurs, and multinationals are looking...

As global companies focus their strategies on developed and emerging markets, they require substantial cadres of leaders capable of operating effectively anywhere in the world. American companies and academic institutions possess unique competitive advantages in developing these global leaders. They are remarkably open to talented people from diverse backgrounds, and are highly skilled at giving […]

Andy Molinsky, author of Global Dexterity, explains why it’s important to customize your behavior in a new cultural setting.

President Obama’s upcoming trip to India is probably the most highly mediatized presidential visit ever. The fact that the trip comes so soon after a “shellacking” in the mid-term elections makes it even more important. Expectations are running high in both the US and India with geopolitical experts and media pundits comparing the visit to […]

Local manufacturing and online sales channels.

Cost control and risk management have been crucial.