Customer Reviews

Business Without Borders: A Strategic Guide to Global Marketing

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4 star:		(2)
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DePalma's book is much more than the sub-title "A Strategic Guide to Global Marketing" implies. It really addresses the strategic and tactical changes a company must go through internally in order to reap benefits from the world-wide marketplace. The first big "thread" that is important to me in the book is that globalizing a company is a process that needs to be worked through - you can't just mandate it into existence. You can't go into the process with the right answers ahead of time - they have to be discovered by going through the process. The second is that the effort requires corporate commitment: it requires a comprehensive and unified view, high-level corporate buy-in and support, and a person accountable for making it all happen. His concept of the Chief Globalization Officer (CGO) is precisely the answer most companies need. I highly recommend the book to globalization neophytes and experts alike.

I finely finished reading Don's book and I think it is excellent. Much said is also directly applicable to software localization and global product planning in general. I have not seen any other books addressing these aspect of globalization!
I am a 10 year localization veteran and I teach localization at the Localization Institute and the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

Don does a good job of introducing the budding globalist to the Eighth Continent, i.e. to doing business on the global web. The book will do well as a college text book. Don's style is incisive and entertaining and he lards the book with illuminating examples.

"Business Without Borders" is the first e-business book focused specifically on globalization. Generally, publications dedicate a single chapter to the challenges associated with international marketing, project management and operations campaigns. This book is the first to promise and deliver an in-depth guide to launching and perfecting multi-market business initiatives.

An industry specialist, I have been waiting for a follow-up publication to DePalma's seminal White Paper, "Strategies for Global Sites", for years. DePalma authored that often-quoted paper as a Forrester Analyst in the late 90s. This is the follow-up that the industry has been waiting for, and I'm thrilled that it has been written by the same authority that first tackled the issue at Forrester.

The book builds upon the author's early work as an industry leader, and takes it a step further through well-selected case studies, stats, and interviews with leading execs. Further, it offers timely advice on financial justification in the current economic climate.

In summary, it is a seminal publication from a proven authority - a `must-buy' for any company (large or small) that is interested in optimizing return on their on/off-line program investment.

Three cheers for DePalma. After 25 years of cloudy blather about the promise (and imperative) of global marketing from slick marketing gurus, Don DePalma takes this subject to task. The notion of the eighth continent sets the stage appropriately. His inviting segmentation of a complex business challenge is complemented by his down-to-earth style. A steady stream of diverse, compelling real-world examples underscores that global marketing must be addressed through broad corporate buy-in and planning. And, there's a load of prescriptive content that provides low hanging fruit for any marketer or manager looking to initiate or refine their organization's global efforts for 3-5 years out.

This is the most comprehensive guide for going global you will find. DePalma has condensed years worth of trial and error into a simple yet complete guide for taking your prodcts and services to international markets. His command of the fundamentals will save you tons of money and time as well as drive your product introduction to faster returns. Well done, Mr. DePalma!
Thomas D. Blondi
CEO, President
Hard Dollar Corp

Business Without Borders is a clear and concise step-by-step guide to the intricacies and challenges of global marketing. The author delves into every aspect of global marketing with a common sense approach, analyzes relevant issues, and presents indepth, practical advice. I highly recommend this book to anyone committed to making their global business a success.

This book, in addition to being very entertaining, contains practical answers to the common (and the not so common) questions that businesses that want to expand internationally have. It is a book about marketing, content management, multicultural opportunities in the US, and, most important, tells the reader how much it actually costs to do it!

I couldn't stop reading it!

DePalma has produced a detailed, well-reasoned tour de force for companies who need to act on the globalization imperative. He touches on every aspect of the globalization process, including target market analyses, localization, internal corporate issues, and much more. Even companies who are well along in their efforts to operate globally (in every sense of the word) could learn a thing or two from DePalma's book.

He personalizes what could easily become a dry subject by regularly invoking a fictitious model protagonist named "Mira Vozreniya" - meaning "world view" in Russian (with tongue planted firmly in cheek) - to guide the reader through the intricate and complicated process of taking products global. His approach is hands-on, with many summarizing charts, tips, data points, and tools for would-be globalizers. And he spends significant time on the 8th Continent and web-related issues, in the process dispelling many a myth about the instant globality of a web presence. The book is filled with real-life examples of what to do and what not to do to be successful globally.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is, or soon will be, involved in the massive undertaking that is globalization in a corporate environment. There is a great deal to digest in DePalma's book (dare I say, too much?), but if companies implement even a fraction of what he lays out, they will do well for themselves.

Having spent too many years of my professional career on personalization, I picked up this book to find out the personalization angle in e-business globalization. The author didnot disappoint me as the book succintly describes globalization as full-context personalization. However, the book is much more than this viewpoint. Mr. DePalma makes the business case for e-business globalization, and gives concrete steps for planning, implementing and measuring a globalization strategy. I liked both the content and its presentation. First, the author has a knack for getting to the gist of an issue such as 3 P's of global marketing. Second, the presentation is very precise with the right amount of details such as the elements required for correct language representation from scripts to encoding methods. Third, the material is action oriented as the example for when to use machine translation vs. human translation. Well done!