800-CEO-READ - Blog posts: Globality

The Economist has chosen their books of the year in a variety of categories. You can go through the entire list here, but I've listed the choices in the Economics & Business category for quick review below.

The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash by Charles R. Morris, PublicAffairs
Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Entrepreneurship and the State by Yasheng Huang, Cambridge University Press
When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change by Mohamed El-Erian, McGraw Hill
The Venturesome Economy: How Innovation Sustains Prosperity in a More Connected World by Amar Bhidé, Princeton University Press
The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World by Tim Harford, Random House
Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World by Don Tapscott, McGraw-Hill
Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything by Hal Sirkin, Jim Hemerling & Arindam Bhattacharya, Business Plus
The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs by Charles D. Ellis, Penguin Press

Other notable choices that could've been placed in the business category are A Splendid Exchange by William J. Bernstein, which was chosen in the History category (and we chose as the best book of the year on globalization), and Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein's Nudge from the Science and Technology category.

GLOBALITY Blog #3: You're Not Just Competing for Customers
Posted July 10, 2008 3:32 a.m. by kate
In Global Business - 800 CEO Read Blog

It's the final day of blog hosting by the authors of GLOBALITY: Competing with Everyone From Everywhere for Everything. Jim Hemerling, co-author and senior partner of The Boston Consulting Group's San Francisco office, is our host today; he'll be checking in every now and then to take your questions.

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You're Not Just Competing for Customers

In the era of globality, we will all be competing with everyone from everywhere for everything. I want to talk about what everything means.

Customers, of course. The big multinationals from the West and Japan -- the "incumbents," as we call them -- suddenly find themselves competing with the "global challengers" (based in the rapidly developing economies) for customers in the challengers' home markets, in the incumbents' home markets, and in every other market around the world.

Commodities, too. I'm talking about bauxite and aluminum, palm oil, shipping containers, iron ore, natural gas, cotton -- every raw material that's needed to run a business could suddenly become scarce or pricey.

Talent is another big consideration. Human resources used to be mostly about recruiting (or poaching) the best people for the slots you needed to fill, then doing your best to keep them happy and motivated. Now it's different. There's a real scarcity of specialized talent. Some employees don’t want to live and work where companies need them. And, in many countries, there just aren't enough people with the right skills to run factories or manage services.

Everything also includes: capital, intellectual property, brand awareness, press coverage, real estate, equipment, partners and suppliers. You name it.

Almost everything is up for grabs. Almost nothing can be locked up.

With the cost of fuel skyrocketing, you may not even be able to book a flight from wherever you are to wherever you want to go!

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Thanks to Hal, Arindam, and Jim, authors of GLOBALITY for hosting our blog this week! If you're interested in learning more about the book and/or the authors, check out their website.

GLOBALITY Blog #2: The New Competitors Come from Everywhere
Posted July 9, 2008 3:30 a.m. by kate
In Global Business - 800 CEO Read Blog

Welcome to day two of the GLOBALITY blog hosting. Yesterday Hal Sirkin introduced us to the who side of globality. And today, Arindam Bhattacharya, partner of The Boston Consulting Group's New Delhi office, joins us to discuss the where of globality. He'll be answering your questions throughout the day. Ask away!

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The New Competitors Come from Everywhere

In the era of globality, where will your competitors come from? Short answer: Everywhere.

At The Boston Consulting Group, we've done extensive research on a group of companies that we call the "global challengers." These are very successful companies that come from 14 rapidly developing economies: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Egypt, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Thailand, and Turkey.

They operate in virtually every industry: industrial goods, durable goods, resources, food and beverage, cosmetics, technology equipment, pharmaceuticals, mobile communication services, shipping, and infrastructure.

The big multinational companies, the "incumbents" as we call them, have been taken by surprise by these challengers, precisely because they seemed to pop up from unexpected places or enter industries where no challengers had been before.

Who guessed that the world's top maker of children's strollers, Goodbaby, would come from China? Or that the leading maker of regional jets of 120 seats or less, Embraer, would be Brazilian? Or that the leading supplier of natural gas, Gazprom, would be based in Russia?

And the speed! The challengers move faster than incumbents. They grow faster. Create more products faster. Complete acquisitions faster. And enter new markets faster.

They're everywhere!

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Tomorrow, join us for the final day of blog hosting by the GLOBALITY author Jim Hemerling.

GLOBALITY Blog #1: Your Competitors May Not Be Who You Think They Are
Posted July 8, 2008 3:36 a.m. by kate
In Global Business - 800 CEO Read Blog

As I mentioned yesterday, for the next three days the three co-authors of GLOBALITY: Competing with Everyone From Everywhere for Everything will be hosting our blog and taking your questions. Today, we welcome Hal Sirkin, a senior partner at The Boston Consulting Group's Chicago office and co-author of PAYBACK: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation.

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Your Competitors May Not Be Who You Think They Are

The subtitle of our new book GLOBALITY: Competing with Everyone From Everywhere for Everything pretty succinctly describes what this new business era is going to be like. Today, I'm going to describe who the Everyone is. Tomorrow my co-author Arindam Bhattacharya will define the Everywhere and on Thursday Jim Hemerling will get into the Everything.

So who's everyone? In the "old days" of globalization, the big Western companies pretty much knew who their competition was going to be: other companies that looked a lot like them. The "incumbents," we call them. GE, Siemens, Toyota, etc. But while the multinationals were outsourcing their production in the developing countries, something unexpected happened. Their suppliers and vendors, little companies in China and India and Brazil and elsewhere, watched carefully and learned well.

Those companies grew up and became "global challengers." Goodbaby of China, which didn't exist twenty years ago, sells 80 percent of children's strollers in China, and has 28 percent of the stroller market in the U.S. Tata Group of India recently bought Land Rover and Jaguar. Embraer of Brazil is the world leader in regional jets under 120 seats.

So the message for Western companies is that your toughest competitor could be anyone. A start-up in Argentina. A state-owned monolith in China. A network of non-profit councils in India. An entrepreneur in Turkey. There's a very good chance they won't look at all like you. Which is why you may not see them coming.

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Stay tuned. Tomorrow, GLOBALITY co-author Arindam Bhattacharya will be stopping by.

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