Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything

by Hal Sirkin, Arindam Bhattacharya, James W. Hemerling, et al.

Book Overview

An absolutely stunning -- and scary - wake-up call that reveals how the economic world is about to change dramatically in the next few years as dozens of RDEs ("Rapidly Developing Economies") begin to assert themselves as major economic powers.
Globalization is about Americans outsourcing product development and services to other countries. Globality is the next step, where rapidly developing economies from around the world are now...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446178292
• ISBN13: 9780446178297
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Business Plus
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.07 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Careful Documentation of What Companies Based in Emerging Markets Are Doing to Compete Everywhere

Globality is an excellent book for corporate executives, business unit leaders, and entrepreneurs. If you are an investor or want to read about the culture of world business, this isn't going to be your cup of tea. We are in the middle of the great business convergence, an event so epochal that it will be written about as one of the great turning points in world history over the next several hundred years. What's it all about? Simply, every organization will complete with virtually every other organization on the planet. In the process, the dominant companies of the 21st century will be built. In Globality, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) partners Harold Sirkin, James Hemerling, and Arindam Bhattacharya take the view primarily from enterprises founded in China, India, Brazil, and Mexico to show how those with the fewest resources, least skills, but lowest costs, are building important global positions in major industries. I compared this writing to what BCG founder Bruce D. Henderson used to write in the 1960s about Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese companies being poised to deflate profits for companies in the U.S. and Europe, and I was pleased to see that Globality is much more articulate, better defined, and easier to understand. Although the book is very much about the evidence brought by the challengers, the information is presented neutrally in terms of describing opportunities available for anyone. In addition, there are specific suggestions for what well established companies in developed countries might do to best take advantage of these opportunities. For me, the best parts were the case histories of companies in China and India that I don't know much about. You'll find many interesting stories. In terms of analyzing the opportunities, the major themes are: (1) Minding the Cost Gap (2) Growing Human Capabilities (3) Reaching Deeper into Markets (4) Geographically Pinpointing Resources and Capabilities (5) Thinking Big (6) Acting Fast (7) Getting Help from Outside (8) Innovating the Business Model (9) Embracing Global Diversity (10) Being Prepared to Attack Everywhere and Be Attacked from Everywhere The chapter titles in the book aren't quite this clear. You'll have to read the material to grasp the key concepts, but you'll get it. I liked that the book has strategic, organizational, and tactical dimensions. If you want to get a quick look at the overall themes, head to page 239 to read the Nokia story and to page 249 to read the Emerson story.

from globalization to globality - widening the perspective

The authors of Globality have captured well what we are just now beginning to recognize in US corporations. For the last 20 years, globalization has symbolized the outpost approach American corporations have adopted to opening markets outside the US, while remaining stateside centric in our planning and execution. Globality is a sharp reminder that those markets are not just open, but thriving so well that American business must recognize the need to incorporate the issues, challenges, and opportunities into their strategic planning. Now is the time to put aside our pride, and learn the strategies and tactics that given our global neighbors a competitive edge. Most of all, we must recognize the risk of not doing so.

Forging a Competitive Global Landscape

This book is a must for anyone competing in the rapidly changing global environment. The authors provide story after story of current companies creating exceptional growth and value in some of the previously least expected places in the world. It is humbling to recognize how much business success is occuring using many nontraditional and diverse business strategies. There is so much to be learned from these companies and countries. The authors provide a vivid picture of why that learning is so needed if one expects to compete. The book does not leave the reader without suggesting ways companies can join the success.

Michael S.

What a great book. Easy to read. Compelling messages. It's power is in the principles: Now is the time to be ready for global competition. Now is the time to be ready to take advantage of global markets. Now is the time to talk and deal to get strength, innovation, ideas. Sirkin, Hemerling and Bhattacharya speak with a fine, strong voice. Wow.

How to thrive in an ecosystem of business opportunity

With regard to the title, Harold Sirkin, James Hemerling, and Arindam Bhattacharya explain that "globality [is] the name for a new and different reality in which we'll all be competing with everyone, from everywhere, for everything." In a global business environment that Thomas Friedman characterizes as having become "flat," it is also possible (albeit theoretically) for companies to forge a strategic alliance with anyone, anywhere. They go on to suggest that as a new era emerges, "we call it globality, a different kind of environment, in which business flows in every direction. Companies have no centers. The idea of foreignness is foreign. Commerce swirls and market dominance shifts. Western business orthodoxy entwines with eastern business philosophy and creates a whole new mind-set that embraces profit and competition as well as sustainability and collaboration. Globality is a blockbuster new script - action, drama, suspense, and road picture all packed into one - with a sprawling cast of characters and locations in every corner of the world." Sirkin, Hemerling, and Bhattacharya explain why and how a "tsunami" wave of competition from global challengers (i.e. rapidly developing companies) has risen up and challenged established players, what they call "incumbents." In fact, developed companies now find themselves struggling to compete successfully in terms of cost differentials; "growing people" and then positioning them in proper alignment; market penetration; "pinpointing" (i.e. connecting with customers, distributing complexity, and reinventing the business model); rapid growth (by scaling up, building brands, filling capability gaps, and bartering); innovating with ingenuity; and embracing "manyness" (i.e. many countries, economies, markets, locations, and facilities but no centers, no home markets, no foreignness, or hierarchy of location). New mind-sets are needed if incumbents are to respond effectively to these and other challenges. Each of the co-authors is a senior-level executive with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and, together, they have dozens of years of close association and direct involvement with a number of companies - and have accumulated extensive research data on many other companies - among the "BCG Challenger 100." Thirty-four of these companies provide industrial goods, 17 are resource extractors, 14 make consumer durables, another 14 offer food, beverage, and cosmetic products, four make technical equipment. The remaining 17 operate in a wide variety of fields that include pharmaceuticals, mobile communication services, shipping, and infrastructure. For me, the most important material in this book is provided as the co-authors examine specific challenger companies and suggest what lessons can be learned from their initiatives. They include BYD, Johnson Electric, Wipro, ICICI Bank, Embraer, Barat Forge, Cipla, Tata Consulting Services, and Mahindra & Mahindra (M & M). As I read about them, I was reminded of J