Businesses Beware: The World Is Not Flat

Thomas Friedman, author of "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century", opines that a number of events ranging from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the rise of the Internet have flattened the competitive landscape worldwide by increasing globalization and reducing the power of states.

But the world is not flat, argues HBS professor Pankaj Ghemawat. Think of it as partly globalized, or "semiglobalized."

"Strategies that presume complete global integration tend to place far too much emphasis on international standardization and scalar expansion," Ghemawat argues. While identifying similarities from one place to the next is essential, effective cross-border strategies will take careful stock of differences as well.

Martha Lagace

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