Globalisation in Business - Research Paper Example

Globalization International markets require a great deal of national input in order to have success within their related undertakings. The global tilt is important as it brings to light the uniform role of the business activities and processes; however it is also significant that for business to be deemed as a success, the local level details are given a due place so that there are no missing elements within the related domains. The globalization discussions centre on the premise of bringing the business organizations on a similar level; a level which will essentially take care of the underlying philosophies of reaching out to the needs of customers spread far and wide, and the exponential increase in the earnings, brought forward by the stakeholders. For business to grow both at a local level as well as on the global pattern, it is quintessential to have a clear cut link amongst the people who matter the most within the organizational undertakings. These people comprise of the top management domains who are the ones who will make the decisions and enact policies, which will form the essential basis of success in the long term scheme of things. The global synergy can only come about when the local level synergistic efforts are geared to meet the needs and requirements of their peculiar areas. The local level strategies thus manifest the long term growth and productivity patterns on the global level. The link between the local and the global strategies is an obviously uphill task because the common myths between the two are studied in an exclusive fashion, to take care of the organizational processes and behaviours. This paper will discern whether or not a uniform strategy will form the eventual basis of success within the local as well as the global domains of conducting business and gaining a competitive advantage. In order to gain a clear cut competitive advantage at the local level, it is significant to distinguish what could be regarded as a competitive advantage in the first place. The manner in which this advantage comes about is at a peril when the competitive rivalries are head on and when the competitors are undertaking serious negative perspectives upon the whole industrial settings. This is an ethical dilemma which the organization faces over a period of time and hence needs to be discussed in the light of the Kantian theory of ethics, whereby the positives of business processes are seen in the light of doing good for the global regimes, within the business standpoint. Globalization has demanded of businesses to remain one step ahead of competitive activities because it is hard to predict what moves the organizations will take in the coming times. However guess work and prior work record speaks a great deal about the vision that a company has for its own self. It also dictates the way through which this organization will make its way to the masses and thus exert its complete control within the related scheme of things. It is essential to understand that competitive advantage can only be built when globalization drives are directed to create serious benefits for the local level business regimes (Foss 2005). However these local business regimes would in return look to boost the economic upheaval within the global synergistic effects (of the local levels). This is a point of clear cut advantage amongst the organizations that have set up their global offices far and wide, across a number of different continents. The competitive advantage is built when the organizations irrespective of their local and/or outsourced units work towards achieving the same objectives and end goals. There must be a complete synergy amongst their ranks so that impediments do not arise as a result of the shortcomings within the building up of competitive advantage. It is essential that this competitive advantage is understood in a proper manner by the top management because the policies will emanate from the holds of the top management itself. The organizations no matter how distanced they are in terms of locations, are governed by the headquarters which will outline the very policy which will dictate the norms and procedures of the organization. Therefore competitive advantage is essential when the industrial domains are involved in a rigorous manner, and when the competitive intensity is severe more than anything else. This intensity might work to the advantage of the firm in the long run, but sometimes it could backfire as well. The drawbacks related with adopting local level competitive advantage philosophies is that more funding mechanisms are employed and hence the resources are used in an optimum way. It is advisable to make use of these resources in such a manner that the objectives are attained in the most effective manner. The productivity patterns are heavily dependent on the way organizations create competitive advantage for their own betterment (Chandler 1999). The employees must manifest their truest selves towards their performance levels. This could only be made possible when the employees know beforehand what to expect from the organizations as far as completion of their tasks in a timely manner, are concerned. The employees must have a proper understanding of how their organization will deal with them in the event of their moving out to a foreign location. They will get to know the problems which can arise if any such event arises. Also they will study and analyze the impediments involved with the achieving of the synergistic effects of the strategy adopted by the organization. The productivity will increase once the employees that all of their activities would be undertaken in much the same manner as they would sitting at a location where the organization has its outsourced units. It is important to consider the strengths and weaknesses related with the adoption of a local level strategy for the sake of such organizations which have already been mandated to follow the global synergies, the ones that have been tried, tested and proven with the passage of time. The strengths bring to light the notion of understanding how the globally accepted policies could be replicated within the local level business processes and undertakings. However the weaknesses arise when the same policies and measures have difficulty to be implemented within the local level business domains. There must be a mesh in order to have proper and smooth communicative levels at all the locations of the business organization. This will trigger a positive influence towards the work ethos of the organization as a whole and the revenues will start coming in, at a steady pace. The talk of mergers and acquisitions happening within ranks of the organization are also dealt with in a proper manner, because these aspects exponentially increase the hold of the organizations over their target audiences and the way in which the revenues could be increased drastically. Any aspect which looks to increase the market share is appreciated by the organizations on a consistent basis but it is usually dependent on the collective efforts and endeavours of the top management as they have to allow the incorporation of such principles within the work ethos of the organization (Johnson 2000). The synergistic effects of the local level offices are looked after by the global headquarter, which has the duty to make sure everything is going on in a smooth fashion. The local level transitions are studied in depth by the headquarters so that there are no missing links and all the steps are in conformance with the principles and agenda already set by the headquarter. This is what is known as the uniform strategy and it essentially takes into consideration a number of different facets which govern the very basis of the organization. Therefore the synergistic effects of the global strategy are replicated in such a manner that the wholesome basis remains intact and there are no hiccups in the completion of the tasks that have already been envisaged by the organization in essence. The synergistic effect is important as it takes into consideration all the individual level efforts by the local offices, spread far and wide across a number of different continents. The importance of this synergistic effect is that it brings to table the strengths and weaknesses of the uniform strategy put into place by the headquarters and finds a way to devise this policy in line with the local level strategies. The competitive advantage avenues are touched upon in detail when there are weak links present amongst the global strategy and the local level strategies (Ghemawat 2003). These weak links are removed by understanding where the shortcomings have cropped up from and how the same will create a synergistic effect with the different local level offices all around the world. The synergist effect of the uniform strategy plays its vital role by manifesting the need for having similar policies and mechanisms within the organizational tenets. This is deemed as significant because it presents quite a number of opportunities for the organization in the long run as well as pinpoints the grey areas upon which more work could be done upon in the coming times. The strengths of the global strategy are that they bring to light the notion of understanding the uniform policy manuals of the organization. These policy manuals take care of the single path strategy adopted by the organization for its long term growth and development patterns. On the flip side, the local level strategies are brought to good effect for the sake of the organization. These local level strategies are better geared to suit the needs of the organizational offices, spread in different locations of the world. The global strategy is indeed a comprehensive basis of all the local level strategies that are being implemented within the different locations of the world. Even these local strategies are followed differently in the same country at times because the political climate is different to ascertain at varied locations within the same country. This marks the basis of anomaly to exist within the ranks of the organization and how the same issues could be touched upon in entirety to take care of the shortcomings within the organizational linkages. These problems are thus rectified once the national strategy is followed to the core. This national strategy will form the basis of a national synergy which will take into account the various possibilities within the working basis of the organizational undertakings. The national synergistic efforts could be replicated on the local levels as well but the global strategy will remain the same no matter how difficult it is to implement the same on the local levels of the organization. A uniform strategy gives the organization the room to enforce its role in a very lucid manner. This is made possible by understanding this global strategy in the line of the local level strategies, adopted and implemented within the different countries of the world. This uniform strategy is cohesive, presents a detailed view of the organization and looks to present the different findings in the light of the future of the business entities with respect to the industry and the competition that has come about in a quick fashion. The future is immensely important because it takes into consideration the different elements of the organizational mix as well as outlines the basis for having a parallel strategy with the one that is already applicable within the reigns of the organization. The uniform strategy plays its decisive role when there are confusions in adopting the local level strategies and when the synergistic effect seems missing from the loop. The different countries which have business operations working within them adopt their preferred local level strategies with respects to the business but the emphasis is always bent on having the global strategy in place (Wallace 2004). The global strategy is therefore playing a very important part in deciding how the strategy will replicate its truest self within the different nations of the world and in what capacity. This is deemed as significant as these countries find the closest possible links with the uniform strategy as they seek to avoid the shortcomings and weaknesses of the strategic behaviours and actions. It is a fact that the strategy should be devised in such a manner that the local level impediments and shortcomings are given a serious consideration so that these find their due place within the work philosophies of the business entities in the different countries where organizational outsourced units or offshore units are located. This strategy must look at building the organizational capacities so that the people resource mechanisms can have the best possible results and their work ethos are boosted in a pragmatic manner nonetheless. Therefore it is advisable to have such a strategy which covers all the details related with the different countries of the world. The local level policies need to be aligned in such a manner that the global results are achieved in a very effective way. These local level mechanisms take into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of the strategic moves and actions, and then decide on the future course of action (Aken 1992). This is a pertinent move and more so in the time and age of today as business organizations have moved on from the age old dictum of delivering for the sake of the customers solely. In the current times, the stakeholders need to be satisfied as well since there are a number of other people who have their respective say within the organizational undertakings and business domains. This will have a synergistic effect in the long haul and create the value for the sake of the customers, stakeholders, the internal employees and the top management in essence. Adapting strategy to suit the national market characteristics has received quite a good amount of praise by the business fraternity. In fact the strategic groups and top management domains have worked in unison to solve the issues that have played a major role in aligning the global (uniform) strategy with the national market strategies. The national market characteristics are seen as the basis for developing the global strategy for the organization as the inputs within these local level domains have a huge say in the final make-up of the uniform strategy that the firm adopts in essence. It is imperative to have the inputs of local level players so that there is appropriate representation of these tenets (local level business undertakings). The strategists focus on the provision of long term objectives and end goals but sometimes they forget the fact that the goals are important if and only if the results are considered imaginable (Purdie 2004). If the results are seen as somewhat going out of the pertinent domains of the business regimes, it would be best to re-align the local level strategy so that more flexibility for the chalking up of the strategy could indeed be obtained. But once again the focus is heavily placed on the way the organizations look after their local level strategies and work hand in hand with the uniformly acceptable global strategy, which indeed is the core basis for understanding the rational behind a company’s success in the long run. The native strengths of the uniform strategy are apparent to one and all as these signify the essential basis of growth and development within the organization. Similarly the strengths of the local level business strategies are that these cope up with the area-specific requirements and hence align the same with regards to the business which the organization is busy at. Turning towards the weaknesses, one finds that the uniform strategy sometimes forgets the fact that the area applicability discussions do not always centre on the premise of bringing value for all the locations and offices situated far and wide. The native weaknesses of the local level strategies are that sometimes there are serious straying aspects related with the business undertakings and this proves to be a bane as far as the performance of the business processes are concerned. What is important in such a case is to have a mix of the native strengths of both the global (uniform) strategy and the local level one so that the results are pretty useful for the sake of the business organization in the long run. The weaknesses related with the business domains need to be pushed out so that these do not become serious points of hindrance as far as the performance of work ethos are concerned, more so for the sake of the employees working for the sake of such organizations. The native strengths and weaknesses of the uniform strategy and the local level strategy are studied from an incisive fashion so that the results are there for the taking. If these results are drawn up in a manner that there are only benefits for the sake of the organization, one would believe that this form of an organization has done something that will bring in more dividends in the near future. In the end, it is summarized here that both these strategic options have focused on the usefulness of the application procedures and the ways through which practical demonstration of the business benefits have been brought to serious action. It is indeed needed that the top management plays its pertinent role to solve the anomalies present within the related system of implementing the chosen strategy. The synergistic effects can only be deemed as viable if these create positive results for the processes that are underway in the organization and the future endeavours which will make the rounds of such an organization (Culp 2001). It is better to have prior approval of the organizational top heads as to what they think of the norms and procedures within the business regimes so that no such issues crop up in the coming times. All said and done, the manner in which the applicability of the uniform strategy and the local level strategy has been made use of is something to understand and properly analyze before one decides to implement for the sake of the organizational locations spread in different regions of the world. Bibliography AKEN, Johan. (1992). Process-Related Problems in Operations Strategy. International Studies of Management & Organization, Vol. 22 CHANDLER, Alfred. (1999). The Dynamic Firm: The Role of Technology, Strategy, Organization, and Regions. Oxford University Press CULP, Christopher. (2001). The Risk Management Process: Business Strategy and Tactics. Wiley FOSS, Nicolai. (2005). Strategy, Economic Organization, and the Knowledge Economy: The Coordination of Firms and Resources. Oxford University Press GHEMAWAT, Pankaj. (2003). Semiglobalization and International Business Strategy. Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 34 JOHNSON, Robert. (2000). An Acquisition Strategy, Process, and Organization for Innovative Systems. Rand PURDIE, Tony. (2004). Global and Transnational Business: Strategy and Management. John Wiley & Sons WALLACE, Robert. (2004). The Power of Your Reputation Equals Profits Can Be a Tangible Business Strategy. Black Enterprise, Vol. 35, August Word Count: 3,016 Read More