Customer Reviews

The Quest for Global Dominance: Transforming Global Presence into Global Competitive Advantage

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If you're looking for a detailed book on globalization that has the qualities, depth, and approach of a college textbook, here it is. The book was written by two professors who met, and discovered a synergy for writing, while they were students at Harvard. They've developed a style that presents their points in a well-organized fashion, with sufficient illustration and documentation to validate the authors' points. The examples they use are well-known companies that have achieved global dominance; now we know how they did it-with plenty of information and understanding between two covers of a modern book.

The book is organized into nine chapters, each strong enough to be a stand-alone publication on its own. We start with Rising Up to the Global Challenge and then move into Building Global Presence. Appetites whetted, we now get a comprehensive case study: Lessons from Wal-Mart's Globalization. Exploiting Global Presence comes next, followed by a chapter on Cultivating a Global Mindset. This is primary theme of the book; it's a mindset that enables dominance.

Chapter 6 gets into some how-to: Building a Global Knowledge Machine, sharing vital information and understanding across national boundaries and cultural divides. The authors then concentrate on the Dynamics of Global Business Teams and Changing the Rules of the Global Game. The final chapter is Globalization in the Digital Age, keeping us right up-to-date and reminding the reader that this topic is real and "present" in today's organizations. A bibliography and two indices follow the footnotes section.

The ordinary lay reader will have trouble with this book. It is an academic work. However, for senior executives, marketing professionals, and students of globalization, this book will be a treasure. Those involved with graduate education in business should not miss this book. It will be valuable reading for self-growing executives engaged in executive MBA programs, giving them solid knowledge and insight to apply in their real world of global growth and dominance.

As Jeffrey Garten explains in the Foreword, this recently published Second Edition offers "not only updates, not only new examples, and not only a more confident analysis. There are three entirely new chapters." Given all that has happened since the first edition (2001), these are indeed welcome additions. Anil Gupta, Vijay Govindarajan, and Haiyan Wang focus on four tasks essential for any company to emerge and stay as the globally dominant player within its industry:

1. "One, people must ensure that their company leads the industry in identifying new marketing opportunities worldwide and in pursuing these opportunities by establishing the necessary presence in all key markets."

2. "Two, people must work relentlessly to convert global presence into global competitive advantage."

3. "Three, people must cultivate a global mindset."

4. "Four, in developing global strategies, people must take full account of the rapid growth of emerging markets, in particular the rise of China and India."

As the co-authors would be the first to acknowledge, it is quite easy to offer prescriptions such as these. Presumably they agree with Thomas Edison: "Vision without execution is hallucination." After briefly but precisely identifying the "what" of "transforming global presence into global competitive advantage," the authors devote the bulk of their attention to explaining the "how." They intended that their book be broad in its coverage of issues relating to the creating and exploiting of global presence, and, that each chapter would focus on a specific action-oriented issue such as building global presence, cultivating a global mindset, or the dynamics of global business teams.

While citing real-world initiatives by several dozen exemplary companies (e.g. Cisco Systems, FedEx, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Ikea, Marriott, Microsoft, Nucor, Procter & Gamble, and Wal-Mart), the authors address key questions, issues, and challenges such as these:

Which five imperatives drive the pursuit of global expansion?
Under which conditions are alliance-based entry modes more appropriate?
Under which conditions is accelerated global expansion more appropriate?
When location decisions are made, which criteria should be considered?
Which four factors drive the speed with which to cultivate a global mindset?
What are the most common barriers to effective and efficient knowledge transmission?
How to maximize knowledge accumulation and mobilization?
What are the primary reasons for the failure of a global business team (GBT)?
How to overcome communication barriers within a global organization?
What are the major benefits to be gained by early globalization?
What is a "two-track strategy" and why should it be executed in both China and India?

Gupta, Govindarajan, and Wang are to be commended on the wealth of information they provide and, especially, on the rigor of their analysis of that information. All three are pragmatists. What has worked for other global companies that have transformed their global presence into global competitive advantage? What lessons can be learned from those initiatives? In this context, I am reminded of what Peter Drucker once observed: "We spend a lot of time teaching leaders what to do. We don't spend enough time teaching leaders what to stop. Half the leaders I have met don't need to learn what to do. They need to learn what to stop." All of the observations and suggestions that Gupta, Govindarajan, and Wang include throughout their narrative share a single purpose: To guide and inform the process by which correct decisions can be made, decisions that will address what not to do as well as what to do. Although their book is a "must read" for C-level executives in companies that seek to transform their global presence into competitive advantage, I think it should also be read by C-level executives in other (non-global) organizations that are within the supply/value chain of those companies.

I also highly recommend Friedman's aforementioned The World Is Flat 3.0, Victor Fung, William Fung, and Yoram (Jerry) Wind's Competing in a Flat World, C.K. Prahalad's The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, Kenichi Ohmae's The Next Global Stage, and Operation China co-authored by Jimmy Hexter and Jonathan Woetzel.

After reading this book, I went back and looked at the large library I amassed while attending The School of International & Public Affairs at Columbia University and I realized that no book in my entire collection taught me as much about global business as "The Quest for Global Dominance." It is engagingly written and so full of substance, I can't think of a more fun way to learn how to shelter your company from the adverse effects of "globalization" while remaining exposed to its enormous upside potential.

Enjoyed the read during the semester. He really has some key insights on how to master an understanding of globality.

A textbook approach to globalization, however, much of what is found in the book is based largely on organizational theory. Probably a good all around book for the person without a background in that discipline or area of study.

Loved the book, and it arrived on schedule. I work for a large multinational and this really hit home.

The authors do a magnificient job of laying out in detail what is means to be a global company. Most organizations talk about the importance of Globalization and how important Globalization is for their firm. However few truly understand and face upto the real challenges of Globalization.
The book is unique in that it provides a complete picture beginning with formulation of the strategy(Do we really need to be Global) to the execution of the strategy.
Kudos to the authors for giving us this book.

There are many books about globalization. This one is different for different reasons : the use of newest strategic thinking integrated with globalization issues, the use of examples to make it come alive and the readibility. The authors make their research and experience accessible to everybody. A must read for anybody who is serious about going global.

The Quest for Global Dominance is a unique piece of work. Much has been written regarding taking businesses cross-border, few have done it better. Govindarajan and Gupta take this out of the realm of the theoretical with examples of how firms have reactively, and proactively, worked to capture new markets.
I especially recommend the chapter on creating a "global mindset," a challenge many of us face. Their thoughts and examples are worth a read....and a reread.

It's a fairly short,quick read and pretty entertaining.

In short, highly recommended. In fact required reading for global executives and firms looking to stretch into new markets, no matter what the industry.

If there are 10 management books you must read, this has to be part of the list. Once in 5 years come books like 'Competing for the Future' and 'The Innovators Dilema' that completely change strategic thought and lay open fresh paths to explore. The Quest for Global Dominance is one such book.

Globalisation is clearly going to be the most important item on the agenda for every corporate for the next decade. Every manager is going to face serious challenges in this front. This book prepares you to prepare for these challenges and win the globalisation game. Too good to be missed.