Are Executives Ready to Adapt to Globalization?

There’s no question about it, businesses are globalizing, and those who aren’t are getting left behind. The question is, are executives making the necessary changes to keep up with the changing business environment? Maybe not.

IBM took a survey of hundreds of executives and graduate students from around the world to see their views on globalization and today’s business. It’s not surprising that a lot of executive’s responses are somewhat stuck in the past and not adapting to the changing business world.

In the next few decades there will be a huge increase in the diversity in the average global worker and the average global consumer. Countries like India and China are rapidly expanding and becoming larger parts of the global market. With so many changes to the global market, and the global workforce, companies will need to rethink their structure and adapt it to new cultures and markets in order to succeed.

It is expected that over half of companies’ future growth will come from emerging markets, still only 2% of leadership positions are held by people from those areas. This is the area where executives surveyed seem to fall behind the future graduates. Those who are completing their schooling seem to accept that globalization will drastically change businesses in the next few years, while executives don’t see the changes being quite so major. It is essential that companies begin to embrace the globalization of their operation and adapt to each new market.

The fact is that businesses may need to adjust their current structure if they want to be competitive on a global scale. They may need to change their operation style to one that is more decentralized, be adaptive to changes in various markets and adjust for different opportunities, and adjust their corporate culture to one that is appropriate for each of their locations. Things are going global, are you ready?