To say that globalisation is everywhere may seem tautological, but the statement is not as simplistic as it appears.
Clearly, national distinctions are less relevant as business goes global. But the shift from bulk offshoring of low-level processes, to Indian firms such as HCL pitching themselves as “innovation partners” (Rising costs force India to shift focus to partnerships) is taking the principle to the next level.
HCL is right. As geographic differences are eroded, so businesses can make more complex choices about where to get what they need.
Liverpool Victoria’s decision to ditch its monolithic £160m, 13-year deal with EDS in favour of multi-sourced services managed by an in-house team (Insurance firm cancels £160m EDS contract) can be viewed in the same light.
As can EMI turning to the financial services industry to learn how to handle the revolutionary change affecting the music business (EMI tunes up digital strategy).
Just as business is increasingly geographically dispersed, so the business of business is becoming more universal.
The result is that lessons can be learned, expertise shared and problems innovatively managed on a piecemeal basis one solution from another supplier, one from a different industry, and one from another country.
There is an untold wealth of opportunities, both in terms of new markets to be exploited and of new routes around old obstacles. But the skills required are subtly different.
Some may complain that memory recall is suffering: phone numbers are all kept in mobile phones, and schoolchildren no longer rote-learn poetry.
But to access those phone numbers requires an understanding of structured menu systems. And children need to develop advanced search skills to find what they want amid the morass of available information.
Similarly, IT managers no longer need to know all the answers. What they do need is to be adept at looking out across Thomas Friedman’s “flat world” and seeing where a creative solution might be found.
