June 2004

No. 030

“In Concert with the Global Arena - Second Feature"

Second, we have reached that point in history when all of us - even the smallest countries and businesses - are operating in the same global arena. The elected borders are still there, but they no longer provide the same safety and protection. The invisible borders have become benchmarks for a fluidity of ideas passing back and forth through web-technologies space. This presents new challenges for those in control. The demand for oil and raw materials from foreign lands, modern weapons, modern communications, the scale of modern flexible manufacturing, and the multiplying size of the world's population have ended the time when a government or business could stake out its territory and hermetically seal itself off to outsiders. It may be cliché to see ourselves as a global village, but it is a cliché that happens to be a reality.

The status quo involves literally every country on earth. Each struggle within its own survival for autonomy. There is no place to hide; no new America to seek a new life; we are all in this together, on one side or another, like it or not. Even the so-called neutral countries shop and buy from opposing interests to their own advantage. One country may buy its supertechnologies from one country and its military hardware from another. In politics and business, there is no such thing anymore as a political development or business association in a country that is irrelevant to one's own country. Consequently, evolves the evolutionary change of a differing mindset. There are only developments that are more or less relevant. Thus, accurately judging the degree of relevance can be a matter of life or death, success or failure.

The global nature of economic activity has linked us together, irrevocably, to a degree that has never existed before. Wherefore, the global nature of political activity has disconnected us apart to degree. A worker strike, country coup, currency shift, military deployment, terrorist action, concerted price shift, or technological breakthrough has a consequence far beyond that country's border. The event need not be as powerful as a country lowering its tax rate thus creating more wealth, increased demand for imported raw material and manufactured goods. The event can be so small and local that there is no country impact. Example, when the Coca-Cola Company launched its new-formula Coke in the early-mid 1970's, the standard of living in Madagascar very nearly collapsed. Why did this happen? The new Coke contained much less vanilla than the original-formula Coke. The Madagascan economy depended largely on the production and export of their brown bean, which made Madagascar the world's largest seller of vanilla beans in the world. The good sense of the American consumer in response to Coke's management rejected the new Coke with their wallets. This not only brought Coke's management back to its senses, to retreat and bring back the original (vanilla-rich) formula, but saved the people of Madagascar from a sudden drop in their standard of living and aborted external influence for destabilizing a suddenly shaky government and economic system.

Because all these global connections exist, political leaders and business leadership now must identify and monitor relevant trends and pertinent events throughout the world. The only concept to date designed with this objective in mind for political leaders and the business leadership is market intelligence. The reality is that there is no such thing anymore as a small country or small economy whose interests reach only within its own borders, intermediate community, and regional neighbors. There are countries and economies that are, to a growing degree, at the mercy of political leaders and business leadership trends and events. The political leaders and business leadership who recognize this can persist and the political leaders and business leadership who refuse to recognize this may perish.

All businesses, regardless of their size and scope, will need to view the world's global village as their marketplace. This would equally apply to an employee looking for work or a government looking for a partner. It is no longer reasonable for anyone to lay claim to their own exclusive territory and expect their competitors to stay out. With the rate of change as it now is one cannot even expect that tomorrow's competitors will be the same as today, in the same place, or doing the same thing. There is no such thing as say a Dallas widget manufacturer. There is only a widget manufacturer whose location happens to be in Dallas. Not only in manufacturing, but today all businesses are flexible, movable, and transferable on a seconds notice to almost anywhere in the world. Governments do not have this luxury, but must instead compete to keep what they have and hope for more. A company whose leadership grasps this difference can become an exponentially bigger company, faster, and with greater odds of survival. A company's leadership who fails to recognize this difference is on their way to being someone's subsidiary, or worse, going belly-up. As too many in leadership roles have learned the hard way, in this world trouble tends to strike very suddenly and the downward spiral may be slippery, swift, and final.

In concert with the global arena means that the mixed stew in the worldwide melting pot is now an eclectic soufflé. We are no longer the same as we were yesterday and will not even be the same tomorrow. So, how can we expect others to be? The world is moving through change with you or without you. You will be in concert or out of tune.

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