A Study

Globalization Is one of those few phenomenon we hear about all the time and refer we try to analyses the impacts that globalization has had on the world. With help of some of the best, easy to comprehend examples, we try to understand how with time the business world has become more interactive, communicative and inter- dependent in nature and if it really has been in favor of firms competing in the market. Globalization in business is the integration process of the world through the use of international trading system.It unifies the local and foreign markets to make the trading even easier for businesses. In yet other words, we can call globalization the recess of Increased Inter-connectedness among the countries In the areas of culture, economics and politics. Firms competing In the market place have the luxury to choose their option and maximize their business potentials by the way of participating globally. Such process as a result, simplifies the corporate process of canvassing materials, production, marketing and distribution of products and services.The information System (IS) is quite different from the usual trading and thus businesses get alliance with ease other than supplies and labor forces from there countries as long as they follow the rules set by the global economic authorities including the World Trade Centre. (Schools, 2005) Is it not amazing when we turn an apple I-pod upside down and it says, ‘designed In California (US), assembled In China? The clothes In our wardrobe, an English brand made with Chinese cotton, sewed by Indian hands, shipped on a French freighter crewed by Americans to a united Kingdom harbor.That's Globalization. The word ‘Globalization' has always been creeping on all of us as long as we can remember; however, it has never been so visible and impacting until recent years. Artificial constraints like tariffs have become unfettering and the businesses are expanding globally complicating the already existing com petitive environment (Change & Park, 2005). It can be easily explained as to how the fundamental nature of competition has changed in the industries in the global economy.This change in itself has a relentless pace and moving forward at all time. In words of Williamson (2004), globalization has had too many implications to the national economy. It has intensified inter-dependence among economies in the world market and countries and yes, their organizations as reflected in the knowledge cross borders, flow of goods and services and the financial capital. In short, globalization is the outcome of a large number of business firms competing against each other in a rising number of global economies.Globalization in true sense extends immense opportunities for firms competing in the 21st century highly competitive landscape. In a globalizes market, as confirmed by Khan (2006), the financial capital can be obtained from one national market and be used to buy raw materials in a second mark et. The manufacturing equipment can be purchased from a third national market and be sold in yet another one or say a fourth market. It has become challenging to determine the boundaries of any industry in the current world scenario.Wall-Mart could be a straightforward example to support Khan's (2006) view point. Wall-Mart is the name, the brand, the global giant which is known world over and have been trying to achieve retailing with global pricing, sourcing and logistics without getting impacted by the global boundaries. The idea was to be able to easily move goods and be able to seamlessly use the pricing strategies among all its international operations as it had been able to do in case of its domestic stores. Hit 2007) said once that, Wall-Mart is pursuing this type of retailing (boundary-less) on an evolutionary basis. And, he was right when he quoted that because in the past few it has even more evident that Wall-Mart has actually put things in practice and joined hands with others to make boundary-less retailing possible. Let's count on another example from the entertainment industry. Advancements in telecommunications and the interactive computer networks have made the boundaries of entertainment industry look blur and shady. Networks such as CBS, HOBO, Fox and NBC not only compete among themselves but, also with Sony and Microsoft and perhaps others.It is not easy any more to define the boundaries of a particular industry and switchover, new industry ventures have become more frequent. Yet another major affect of globalization is the design, production, distribution and servicing of goods and services and that is visibly convincing enough to gain instances. A suitable example will be Toyota Motor Company. Global competitor Toyota Motor Company provides shall help us understand how this happens. Toyota Company's products are in high demand internationally because of its initial emphasis on product reliability and superior customer service and support. Barbwire & Mean (2004) figured out that because the demand for Toyota Motor Company's products, it's competitive actions have forced its global competitors to bring improvements in their operations and instill reliability and best customer service and support. And this act of following Toast's example has changed quality service's concept entirely. Almost any vehicle bought today across the globe, from virtually any manufacturer (company/brand) is of a higher quality and all of them extend better ND tailored service support which was not exactly the case before Toyota began competing successfully on a global scale.The firms competing in the global economy have to understand, looking at the wider perspective, that globalization has heightened the levels of performance standards in terms of quality, cost, productivity, product introduction time span and operational efficiency which could be referred to as the so called competitive dimensions. Now, these competitive dimensions not only affect the firms competing in the global economy but, also the firms competing in the domestic markets. And the reason is Customer Preference'.The customer purchases form a global brand rather than a domestic firm or brand as they know that the goods and services offered by the global competitors are far more superior to the local firms. Globalization has also led to the free movement of labor and capital after being recognized as a key source of competitive advantage and therefore, firms globally must understand the importance of keeping a better track of their work force. As Prospers (2005) mentions, the best people will come from, Just about anywhere. ‘ Hence, work force relationship plays a very dynamic role with the dawn of libations.A mixed labor is not always easy to manage and if not given importance in the beginning things may go awry at a later time. An easy to understand example would be pinpointing the Asian community, which is big part of the world population and a big chunk of which works in the west. Too many nationalities and ethnicities working together and it takes the right kind if thinking and planning to keep the things going. And, no doubt that takes careful planning and implementation. The business corporations must learn enough to positively deal with the ground realities of the current global competitive environment.Only those companies have the ability to make above average profits which are capable of meeting or rather exceeding the existing global standards. (Fink & Holder, 2005) The term, ‘Global Village' & Increasing Interaction among businesses Emergence of global economy did create some interesting opportunities. And, that is why today Europe is the world's largest single market, instead of USA, with 2005). Globalization History can create arguments of when or where it usually started and who have been the pioneers of globalization but we know for sure this is the present notations that the world has been experienci ng.This new form of business relation and practices often referred to as global village which is radically changing the business environment and it is true and highly relevant, valid and accepted in today's modern economy. In order for businesses to grow they must consider jumping into the globalization challenges to be able to compete and gain market shares. This has been the rules of the most successful business leaders around the world because the opportunity is there to bring different nations and businesses closer to one another.Look around many establishment and you can find that international businesses are all around, Franchising makes business easy to expand all over the world that a certain person who has the capacity to put up business from Asia can franchise a business in America and other countries examples are Mac Donald, Levis, Seven Eleven, Sarah Lee, Avon and many other stores scattered around the world because of globalization. McDonald's fast food chain can be con sidered as a true example of globalization as true globalization means one company procuring, manufacturing and selling in many countries and McDonald's does exactly the same.It operates in 119 countries and has successfully integrated all its operations internationally. There are many advantages in this process and anyone who would like to take a franchise business is almost assured of success because of its brand, they have ready market all over the world that has gained popularity, franchiser even offer full marketing assistance that makes your business franchise grows using their adaptable marketing expertise that they will be shared upon franchising such business. Supermarkets where we buy are daily need products; accommodate all those reduces from all over the world.Olive oil from Greece, apples from South Africa, wine from France and likewise thousands of more products from around the world. Deco's in the I-J, the biggest network of supermarkets in the UK for an example is no such exception and has left no stone unturned to bring products from all over to be made available in their stores located in the I-J. That is Just another touch to globalization because you are not taking your products to other countries, perhaps but, you are certainly bringing in other products under one umbrella to be sold to a did range of customers.An important discussion could around the Business Process Outsourcing industry which makes a certain business maximize profit by partnership from other countries, businesses like JP Morgan and chase, MM, Telltale, CIT and other companies in Europe and America usually hire and establish businesses in countries such as the Philippines and India since they are highly skilled in English Communication. Usually Technical Assistance from customers around the world pretending they are a part of such company.Through this process the company like IBM can cut their labor expenses while they enjoy productivity because of their highly effective BOP in other countries while people from other countries enjoys a good privilege from their Job because of high salary. This can happen because of currency differences from other countries and an example is India where US $ 1 is equal to RSI. 47 in Indian currency. This means that they mutually benefit from this process. This has been the reasons why BOP is highly increasing demand of people.In the Indian and Philippines alone there are at least 250,000 Call Centre people needed to fill in the vacancies of various BOP Companies. The downturn of BOP industry is that on one hand it provides Job opportunities to people of one country and takes away the Jobs of people from yet another country. Online Trading is the cause of globalization and advancement in technology that businesses can easily tap in customers using the internet, they can gain high market potentials using their website acting as an store-front to advertise their products and services that can be open 24 hours a day seve n days a week.Hotels and restaurants, Air Aviation and Local Businesses including individuals can easily use the internet to gather customers around the world. This can also cut cost their labor and transportation expenses through online participation, customers can simply fill in their information and take the orders and it will be delivered via cargo forwarding, the process is also convenient to their customers since it only takes a few clicks of a button to get an order.These practices also includes the Import- Export trading that includes free trade or open participation that can give opportunity to most business organization and individual to gain international customers around the world. Having taken the world by storm are the internet based social networking websites hose days. Backbone, Resort, Linked, Google, Namespace, Twitter, Bebop, Hi, Nettle and may be hundreds of other social networking sites are always a click away with internet in existence. Twitter for instance ser ves over 200 million people (users) worldwide and takes in 1. Billion requests every single day. That's globalization, right there, opening doors to the world and let communication channels to work their way out without any hindrance. When there are so many countries and organizations that support globalization and understand that it is the right tool for the development of less developed countries ND maximizing profits for the developed countries, there exist some Countries and unions who believed that Globalization is somehow negative and that only the strongest corporation makes the domination and small business may not grow.This to an extent is right. The lesser developed nations might take a set back as in the name of globalization and world trade their resources could be plundered or misused by the stronger nations. Remember, somewhere we talked about the BOP industry which makes the outsourcing company a massive profit, in a way that also by taking advantage of their needs. S ome believed that credit based economy has not done any good but false claims that leads to heavy debt burden while some small businessman believes that globalization is only for imperialistic purposes.Yet another constraint, and cannot be ignored. Globalization certainly has made things better but, in the future might take inter-dependency or complete dependency to a all new Level of chaos in the world. Other European and Middle East Countries somehow they believed that globalization may only favor the internationally known companies and this is not a free trade but the opposite. They re the Anti-Globalization Communities who are against this process, however their claim maybe, globalization will continue to dominate the business world.Globalization: A Stabilizing Factor in International Business It is evident from examples stated before in this paper that globalization has brought a dramatic change in the world market. Business firms attempting to expand their geographic foot-prin t to meet consumer demand, extending their value chain to a global level, stepping into boundary-less retailing and logistics, international tie-ups to get hold of a wider share of customer base, these are because of globalization and eave helped stabilizing the international business community by allowing free movement of men and materials, knowledge sharing and easy access to financial capital.Globalization has indeed at its core eased the border constraints making them less important than before as countries and economies become dependent on each other for survival and progress. Cross-borders transactions have reached to a new level as a result of diverse business locations of firms and their customer base in a broader market which allows them to secure their investments via spreading risk factor. The ERM Global Village nails the concept down very firmly. If it was not globalization the world we live in would never have been what it is now.Variety of goods for the customers, chea p affordable prices, and access to bigger markets, greater employment opportunities, faster technology and trade knowledge are all a result of globalization. Globalization does have its own side effects on somewhat manner as discussed a while ago but, the point it has it helped making things better and convenient, well, the answer is yes. It certainly has pushed the barriers and allowed the world to connect better and stronger than ever. Conclusion: Do we pay consensus to the fact that globalization is good? It is a simple question but, enough to lead to a heated debate among the experts.However, the bottom line is that globalization has indeed created more opportunities for businesses to expand globally, reach out to the mass segment of customers in need, take a stride in terms of revenue generation and of course increase brand but the more the economic and political challenges which emerge at the same time may or may not be addressed meaningfully and chances are more the emerging economies might fail to set up a proper state framework and structure to succeed. Swimming with the tide is still the best option at hand when the stream takes you exactly where you want to be.