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World Class

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World Class

Thriving Locally in the Global Economy

Simon & Schuster,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Text available

What's inside?

The next time you vote for mayor in your town, you might want to consider how your candidate will play in Mumbai, Seoul and Kuala Lumpur.

Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

The cliché-ridden manifesto on "globalism" has become a staple of our time, with seemingly every consultant, economist and professor spewing out a book or two about the worldwide economy. Few of these authors ever rise above the self-evident and oft-stated themes of wonderful opportunity and mortal danger. But in World Class , author Rosabeth Moss Kanter presents - hold on to your seats - an innovative analysis of globalization’s economic and social trends. While the book can’t entirely escape the trite "change-or-die" admonitions of the genre, some of her conclusions truly are original: Companies forced to devote their attention to the global stage will gradually lose interest in their traditional local communities, and those communities will be forced to compete with other localities around the world for the privilege of hosting industry. getabstract.com recommends this book to any executive or student seeking a non-emotional, fact-based look at the implications of globalism for business and society.

Summary

Are You "World Class?"

If you don’t want to end up as the global village idiot, it’s time to adjust to changes in international business. The American millennium is over and the world century is beginning. To prosper in a global economy, American business will have to become "world class." Being world class means meeting higher standards in order to compete successfully on the global stage, and also suggests a new social class able to command resources and operate across borders. In the new era, America’s assumption of automatic preeminence will end. Successful companies will rely on three key assets: competence, concepts, and connections.

Going Global

There are four forces bringing about globalization: mobility, simultaneity, bypass and pluralism.

  1. Mobility: People, capital and ideas are increasingly mobile. Even labor is much more mobile than it used to be, with the emergence of an international labor force of migrant professionals and managers. Competition for the highest skilled workers now occurs nationally. With the advent of the global media, ideas move very rapidly from one region to another. The Internet has largely made location...

About the Author

Rosabeth Moss Kanter occupies an endowed chair as Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. She is an adviser to businesses and governments worldwide, having conducted extensive research on the issues of international business and its affect on local communities. She is the author of 11 other books, including Creating the Future, The Challenge of Organizational Change, and When Giants Learn to Dance.

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