The outlook for globalization

Bruce Lloyd of the South Bank University reports on an interview with Professor George S. Yip, author of Total Global Strategy: Managing for Worldwide Competitive Advantage . Argues that managers must analyse their industry and identify the specific drivers that affect their operation and development. Leads to the identification of a number of global strategy levers: global market participation; products (global products, or local products); location of the value chain; marketing strategy. Explores critical success factors: a combination of traditional concepts associated with building and maintaining a competitive advantage and creating global capabilities and a global network that can tap into the best resources and expertise available around the world, as well as knowing how to pull it together and use it effectively. Maintains that the greatest challenge for management education all over the world is how to reconcile theory and practice. You must understand what you need to learn, then develop the capability actually to learn it.