Title: Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything
Authors: Harold L. Sirkin, James W. Hemerling, Arindam K. Bhattacharya
Pages: 292
Price: $26.99
Theme: Globalization is complete. Here’s what it means.
Who should read: Anybody who cares about their business, company or job.
Quote: “We look forward and see a new era emerging. 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.”
Praises: “Globality” offers a cogent thesis, well-supported and generally well-written. While blunt about the challenges of a globalized business environment, it does not cry wolf to the West, and in fact offers some excellent examples of how Western firms are competing effectively in emerging markets. It also offers deep insight into the operations and strategies of some prominent firms in the emerging world, many of them manufacturers. Similarly, it contains a number of provisions for how to operate in a global economy.
Peeves: It occasionally devolves into the least interesting kind of business self-help book, most notably in the laundry list the authors offer as their final chapter. There is at one point the subtle suggestion that one big component of success in the emerging world is the ability to run sweatshops with impunity.
Big Think Breakdown: “Globality” is a wake-up call for Western executives who think they’re better than upstart competitors in the developing world. It drives home that the best firms outside the West are well-managed, innovative, and strategically excellent — in short, fully capable of competing head-to-head and winning. Even in the wake of the downturn, it’s close to essential business reading.
UPDATE: Globality reviewed in full.
