The global company?: April 07, 1998 issue of New Thinking

April 07, 1998 New Thinking:
The global company?

Website content management

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April 07, 1998

The global company?

By Gerry McGovern

There are a lot of companies in the world that are located globally, but there are very few global companies.

I would define global companies as organizations that seek to maximize the synergy between their various operations throughout the world.

Many globally located companies today are not much more than a hodgepodge of offices, plants, acquisitions and partners. In fact, large organizations are constantly challenged to achieve cohesion, even when they are located in the same building.

With the downsizing of the last ten years or so a lot of the central function of an organization was sliced away. Units were given a lot of responsibility, particularly for profit. Once the profit was good, the much slimmed-down central management didn’t care too much how the unit was operated and managed.

This approach has positive and negative impacts. The overall organization is leaner, and with decision-making distributed, is more able to adapt and change. However, if you let this process go too far, it becomes very difficult to maintain a cohesive organization and brand.

It didn’t matter all that much before the Internet. A lot of the differences could be hidden because of the physical distance between the units and management. Everybody was off doing their own thing, and once the bottom line was okay, then nobody was asking the hard questions.

The Internet is only beginning to change this picture, but give it a few years and it will make a lot of globally-located companies look like they are being held together with tape and string.

The Internet is a network. Networks lend themselves towards being open. This results in increased transparency, which demands accountability.

There was this great cartoon, showing two dogs sitting in front of a computer, with one saying to the other, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” That cartoon had a ring of truth. Fact is, it’s a hollow ring.

On the Internet, everybody has the opportunity to know an awful lot about you. People can search up on you. You’d be surprised what they’d find. Statements from your American website might not be in line with statements from your German website, and might totally contradict what is being said by your British operation. Why, I’ve been through the central website of a large organization in the last week and found four different estimates of how many employees they have.

The introduction of the Euro currency is going to be interesting. Aided by the Internet, consumers will be able to easily check the price a product is being sold for in Germany, as against France, for example. Supposing they decide to go for the cheaper option?

The Internet not simply introduces transparency and accountability, it also introduces the ‘global consumer.’ Such a consumer will be less and less dictated by location, but rather will be looking for the deal that is most suited to them.

Today, many companies slice up the globe and feed off internal rivalry – ‘You have the American market, you have Asia, you have Europe.’ Helped by the Internet, the global consumer is going to drive a stake through that practice, shining a harsh light on a lot of organizations that have not much more in common than their brand, if even that.

Gerry McGovern

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The Internet is a network. Networks lend themselves towards being open. This results in increased transparency, which demands accountability.