Race for the World: Strategies to Build a Great Global Firm - Hardcover

Fraser, Jane; Rall, Wilhelm; Lowell L., Bryan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 087584846X ISBN 13: 9780875848464

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press, 1999

Synopsis

Provides insights on winning global strategies for businesses looking to invest successfully in international markets

About this title

About the Author

Lowell Bryan, Jane Fraser, Jeremy Oppenhiem, and Wilhelm Rall are all consultants with McKinsey & Company.

From the Back Cover

"Race for the World provides pathbreaking insights about winning global strategies --how to think about them, how to execute them, and how to assess the risks associated with them. It will quicken the pulse of every CEO concerned with succeeding in a brutally competitive global marketplace." -Jeffrey E. Garten, Dean, Yale School of Management "Race for the World is a readable guide to a world in which financial capital is plentiful and intellectual capital scarce, and the ability of a business to adapt to this new world will make the difference between success and failure. Basing their ideas on solid research, the authors persuasively argue that, to survive and prosper in the era of information/network enterprises, business needs some new rules." -Walter B. Wriston, Former CEO, Citibank "For every business person investing and operating in today's global economy, Race for the World is a must-read. As the authors' far seeing book examines, major risk and major opportunity lurk underneath the seemingly calm waters of global markets. They explain how to deal with the sea changes of capital availability, digitized data information networks, intellectual property growth, and one-price markets." -Dan W. Lufkin, Co-founder, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc. "Race for the World is a book that I plan to keep on my shelf for a long time. Its original and often provocative ideas will likely stir a great deal of debate and result in a good deal of new insight." -Christopher A. Bartlett, Professor, Harvard Business School, and Author of Managing Across Borders and The Individualized Corporation

Reviews

Ultimately it does not matter if this book, written by four McKinsey management consultants, proves completely correct, because the authors have gone a long way toward framing the debate about the best ways for American corporations to compete globally. In methodical, step-by-step fashion, the consultants explain the changing international landscapeAhow various forces are causing economies worldwide to integrate at an unprecedented rateAand what corporations need to do to capitalize. (Two keys are to dominate completely one or more slivers of a global market and to remain agile at all times.) Their logic is convincing, even if the writing is a bit dense (subheads such as "Disaggregating and Structuring Business Operating Risks" are common). There are certainly other points of view: countless books have talked about establishing joint partnerships as the best way to expand overseas. And last year, McKinsey competitor Cyrus F. Friedheim Jr., vice chairman of Booz Allen Hamilton, argued in The Trillion Dollar Enterprise that alliances were the way to go. The best bet for executives interested in expanding overseasAand that should be all of themAis to add this book to their list of resources and devise their own best strategy. 50,000 first printing; $100,000 ad/promo. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

International expansion tactics must be replaced by true global strategies over the next 30 years to tap into growth in output stemming from global markets, according to this team from McKinsey & Co. They make a strong argument that the entire corporate thought process and organization structure must change in order to maximize the benefits. Many factors have altered the rules of the raceAderegulation in developed countries has created new avenues of competition, technology has lowered costs, local companies now tap into world-class powers, and the ability to cater to "customer segments of one" has expanded customer choice and bargaining powerAleading national governments to ease barriers. Thus, a geographically bounded market, with "protective regulations, loyal customers, known competition, and known technology gives way to an increasingly unbounded world filled with unfamiliarity, complexity, and uncertainty." The problem for global companies is no longer one of gaining access but managing risk. For the informed decision-maker.ASusan DiMattia, "Library Hotline" and "Corporate Library Update"
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Within the last year or so, consultants at McKinsey and Company have preserved the efforts of their work in a number of books outlining best practices in various fields. Bryan and his fellow authors are all McKinsey consultants who work with clients doing business or hoping to do business globally. In addition to insights gained from clients, the consultants conducted an intensive three-year study of 25 companies recognized as global leaders. What they discovered, to their surprise, was that there were no common best practices and that each of those companies was struggling in different ways. The authors admit that they failed to appreciate the extent to which the "world's collective economy was moving on to a new phase of integration that involved far more than simply expanding [geographic reach]." The key to growth, they conclude, is "more about building unassailable value propositions than gaining access to markets," and they use examples from their study to illustrate their argument. David Rouse

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 087584846X
• ISBN 13: 9780875848464
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 364
• Editor: Bryan Lowell L.