Please answer the discussion questions an read the case. Evaluate the significan
ID: 396047 • Letter: P
Question
Please answer the discussion questions an read the case.
Evaluate the significance of country-speclric econedtules ming to international companies. Opening Case: High-Tech Transnationals Take "Stateless" to the Next Level hen the first reports surfaced at 12:17 p.m. Pacific Time on Aug. 11, 2003, that the Blaster com- puter virus was on the loose, researchers at antivirus-software company Trend Micro Inc. scrambl to come up with a fix. Meanwhile, the company's five global alert commanders began sizing up Blaster via cell-phone calls and e-mails. At 1:55 p.m., Hammud Saway, the commander based in Japan, declared a global alert, signaling that this virus was nasty enough to require all the compa- ny's resources. Just 51 minutes later, a cure was ready. The company routinely is among the first responders to viruses, often delivering 30 minutes before market leader Symantec Corp, according to GEGA IT-Solutions in Germany, a response tester. 25Explanation / Answer
1. Technology has had a positive impact on globalization and from the case we can see that advancements in technology have helped companies to transcend nationality and enter into the fourth stage of globalization. Technology has enabled companies to break the traditional organizational structure and locate its different set of employees across the world as per the needs and requirements of the market. For instance it is due to technology that a company can have its marketing team in USA and its programming team in India. In other words technology has only spurred globalization by making geographical boundaries meaningless and by encouraging and enabling companies to be borderless so as to take full advantage of geo-diversity that is present in today’s world.
2. Globalization has significant positive effects on companies like Trend Micro and Wipro. Take the case of Trend Micro. The company has operations spread across the world so that it is able to fight viruses and develop solutions and response to the viruses on a real time basis. All this is possible only due to globalization. The company is no longer bound by a national boundary; in fact it has transcended all national boundaries and has robust global operations, thanks to globalization.
Wipro has also benefitted from globalization. By having its engineering and programming team in India (while having its sales and marketing team in USA) the company is able to leverage the low cost advantages that India has to offer. Thus Wipro has been able to sell its software products at competitive prices while still ensuring that the software are state of the art and meets the requirements of the clients in an optimal manner. All this is possible only due to globalization.
3. Globalization has occurred as companies have started making use of technology to be present in different parts of the world so as to be able to deliver good quality products to its customers at competitive prices. With the rapidly advancing technology as well the rapidly advancing transport and supply chain infrastructure companies now have their departments in different parts of the world as per the needs and requirements of the market that they are serving. Take the example of an Indian IT company like Wipro. Its customers are based in USA for whom software are written in India and these software are then sold by marketing people who are based in USA.
My concern regarding globalization is that it is not reversible and hence it will not be possible to mitigate its negatives in the long run. Firstly globalization can hurt the interest of developing countries as free trade often tends to benefit developed countries more. Secondly globalization can also lead to labor drain as more skilled and talented workers are attracted to work in economies which pay higher salaries and wages. Lastly globalization can lead to an increase in economic hegemony in the long run.