Five keys to being globally integrated no matter your size
by Miki Saxon
Chapter Three from IBM’s The Enterprise of the Future (a steady Saturday feature since July 12; be sure and download your free copy) is about being “globally integrated.” It may sound as if it’s strictly for giant multinationals, but it’s not.
“It was striking that CEOs of companies of all different sizes and geographic coverage were engaged and enthusiastic about these topics, which suggests optimization is crucial whatever the current geographic scale.”
Integration isn’t about selling products or outsourcing work or even doing lots of business in China and India—it’s about connecting, both internally and externally.
According to one US CEO, “We need to move away from an operational focus to a client interface focus.”
That translates to connecting and listening to your customers, even when you find it disruptive or just don’t like what they’re saying, because the one thing you can count on is that someone, some where, is listening and responding.
To spark global integration in your company focus on size-appropriate variations of these five questions
- “Are you effectively integrating differentiating capabilities, knowledge and assets from around the world into networked centers of excellence?
- Does your organization have a globally integrated business design (even if it does not have a global footprint)?
- Do you have a detailed plan for global partnering and M&A?
- Are you developing leaders that think and act globally?
- Do you nurture and support social connections to improve integration and innovation?”
The answers to these are more than operational, they are attitudes that must be embedded in your corporate culture, but ‘corporate culture’ must expand in a global workplace.
As one Japanese CEO said, “The key for doing business abroad is not to seek homogeneity. Instead, we must be able to work effectively with people of different cultures and from different countries. We can learn this by working collaboratively with them.”
This is doubly important for micro biz to remember. Your market may be local, but your customer base is still multi-cultural—even in those rare areas where it isn’t multi-ethnic.
How is your organization addressing these questions?
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Image credit: nookiez CC license
