The title of this article poses a very important question: ‘Do Multinationals Really Understand Globalization?’ From the evidence presented by the authors, the answer is no. CEO’s of multinational corporations and Millennials (generation Y undergrad and grad students) were surveyed about their thoughts on the importance of globalization in companies. There were massively different views between the Millenials and the current CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies. 23% of the CEO’s believe that globalization will have a heavy impact on their organizations in the next five years. Most of them feel that minimal to no changes will need to be made to their obsolete business models in order to become more globalized. The Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development forecasted that the global share of gross GDP for developed economies will drop from 60 percent in 2000 to 43 percent in 2030. This means that businesses will be running in what Radjou and Kaipa term “a polycentric world”—globalization of corporations to the maximum. As a Generation Y student, I also am very excited about globalized businesses. Globalized companies that have proved successful follow the same trends as we, Millenials, have imbedded in our lifestyles: social networking, using technology to the it’s maximum efficiency, and embracing diversity. Globalization of businesses, although controversial, are inevitable. It is understandable why the Baby Boomer and Generation X CEO’s are slow to accept it, but we have been born into this information age where the perception of the world is much smaller. The fact of the matter is the companies that have yet to do so need to explore more “polycentric” business strategies in order to make way for Millenials who will be making careers at these very same companies within a few short years.
Bloomberg Business Week Online:
“Do Multinationals Really Understand Globalization?”
By Navi Radjou and Prasad Kaipa
August 6, 2010
international business blog 