Who participates in globalization? Governments, which form alliances, open borders and support trade across countries? Multinational organizations, which open new subsidiaries abroad and employ people of different nationalities? Universities, which support international student exchange programs? Naturally, all of the above mentioned are active participants in the globalization process. Yet, the latest McKinsey publication highlights that […]
Multicultural Marketing: When Globalization Requires Even More Cultural Sensitivity
I believe that globalization is a term familiar to pretty much everyone; yet, the way people understand globalization may be quite different. On one hand, many believe that globalization is making the world smaller in a sense that local differences are replaced by global similarities. Indeed, it takes one just to travel around a bit […]
Are We Really Living in a Globalized World?
I am an expatriate, with experience of living and working in six different countries. I am currently residing in Spain, working for a globally oriented institution, and frequently travelling abroad for business. When at work, I interact a lot with international students, foreign colleagues, and expatriate managers. On my way home from work I feel […]
Global Business Environment: Comparing the Then and Now
It really is fascinating how quickly the global business environment develops and changes. The latest Insight article in the McKinsey Quarterly magazine illustrates the point very well, highlighting the fifty years gap between then and now. For example, exactly 50 years ago, in 1964, IBM made a breakthrough in computer technologies with their System/360 mainframe, […]
Exile: The Philosophy Behind Uprooting
I believe that the notions of expatriation, immigration, and borderless travel are hardly surprising to anyone nowadays. Globalization has established cross-cultural mobility as a necessity for multinational companies, as an expectation for potential global employees, as a widely used and recognized organizational and educational practice, and as a normal transition within many different life events. […]
The Return of the Expat Allowance
Given the recent focus on the economic crisis in financial news reporting, many headlines in the area of global mobility were about reductions of expat costs and, more specifically, of expat compensation packages. At the beginning of this year however, several sources predicted possible changes to the cost reduction orientation, arguing that talent scarcity will […]
A GLOBAL World of…LOCAL Businesses
Today it is possible to cross borders of different countries and still manage to eat in the same places, shop for the same brands, and stay in the same hotel chains. Plainly speaking, this is the era of globalization. Many new businesses are trying to expand abroad and find a place in the global market; […]
Becoming more global or more homesick?
Globalization, internalization and cosmopolitanism are some of the terms that could be used to characterize the picture of the 21st century. In turn, he typical person of the 21st century is expected to be open-minded, culturally intelligent, excited for change, quick to adjust, and feel ‘at home’ wherever he or she resides. From being citizens of our hometowns, cities or countries, we are expected to become world citizens, or globalists. But are we really living up to these expectations?