Globalization 全球化A fundamental shift is occurring in the world economy. We are moving rapidly away from a world in which national economies were relatively self-contained entities, isolated from each other by barriers to cross-border trade and investment; by distance, time zones, and language; and by national differences in government regulation, culture, and business systems. And we are moving toward a world in which barriers to cross-border trade and investment are tumbling; perceived distance is shrinking due to advances in transportation and telecommunications technology; material culture is starting to look similar the world over; and national economies are merging into an interdependent global economic system. The process by which this is occurring is commonly referred to as globalization.世界经济正在发生着根本性的改变。
我们正迅速地远离这么一个世界,在这个世界里国家经济实体都曾经是相对自给自足,彼此孤立的,就其原因或是设置跨境贸易和投资的壁垒所致,或是因距离、时差和语言的缘故所致;或是因政府监管、文化和商业体制上的的国家差异所致。
与此同时,我们正在走向另外一个世界,在这个世界里,跨境贸易和投资的壁垒正在摇摇欲坠,原来感知到的距离因为交通和电信技术上的进步而正在缩小;物质文化在全世界开始看起来都很相似;各种经济实体正融入一个彼此依赖的全球经济体制中。
而正在发生的这一个过程,人们通常把它称为全球化。
Correspondent: Globalization has been one of the most important factors to affect business over the last twenty years. How is it different from what existed before? Companies used to export to other parts of the world from a base in their home country. Many of the connections between exporting and importing countries had a historical basis. Today, to be competitive, companies are looking for bigger markets and want to export to every country. They want to move into the global market. To do this many companies have set up local bases in different countries. Two chief executives will talk about how their companies dealt with going global. Percy Barnevik, one of the world’s most admired business leaders when he was Cha irman of the international engineering group ABB and Dick Brown of telecommunications provider Cable & Wireless.Cable & Wireless already operates in many countries and is well-placed to take advantage of the increasingly global market for telecommunications. For Dick Brown globalization involves the economies of countries being connected to each other and companies doing business in many countries and therefore having multinational accounts.记者: 过去20多年以来,全球化已经成为影响业务的最重要因素之一。
那么,现在的全球化与以前有何不同呢? 过去的公司都是把在本国生产基地的商品出口到世界其他各地。
进出口各国之间都有着千丝万缕的联系,其中许多联系都有其历史基础。
当今,要想具有竞争力,各个公司都在寻求更大的市场,都想把产品出口到每一个国家,都想迈入全球化市场,为此,许多公司都在不同国家建立了本土化基地。
今天我们请来两位总裁,让他们来谈谈他们的公司是如何应对全球化的。
一位是珀西·巴恩维克,在担任国际工程集团ABB主席一职时,曾是世界上最令人羡慕的商界领袖之一;另一位是迪克·布朗,来自英国大东电报局(Cable&Wireless)的电信提供商。
大东电报局已经在许多国家营运起来了,而且定位很准,充分利用电信业上的日益增长的全球化市场。
对迪克·布朗来说,全球化包括彼此联系的各个国家经济实体和在许多国家做生意的、从而拥有跨国账户的公司。
Dick Brown: The world is globalizing and the telecommunications industry is becoming more and more global, and so we feel we’re well-positioned in that market place. You see currency markets are more global tied, economies are globally connected, more so nowadays withexpanded trade, more and more multinational accounts are doing business in many, many more countri es. We’re a company at Cable & Wireless now, well-positioned to carry the traffic and to provide the services to more and more companies that now need to get to five countries or twelve countries, we’re often there.迪克·布朗:世界正在全球化,电信业正变得越来越全球化,因此,我们觉得在这个市场上我们的定位具有优势。
你也瞧见了,货币市场之间,全球经济实体之间,都在全球化;扩展贸易更是如此,跨国账户越来越多,而且在许多,甚至更多的国家开展业务。
我们这个公司现在隶属于英国大东电报局(Cable&Wireless),有能力提供电信业务并为越来越多的公司提供服务,这些公司现在需要到五个或十二个国家经营业务,我们公司经常在这些国家经营。
Correspondent: When Percy Barnevik became head of the international engineering group ABB, his task was to make globalization work. He decided to divide the business into over a thousand smaller companies. In this way he believed the company could be both global and local. In answering the question “How do you make globalization work?” Percy Barnevik describes the “global glue” that keeps the many different people in ABB together. He then looks at the need to manage the three contradictions of company: it is decentralized but centrally controlled, it is big and small at the same time and it is both global and local.记者:珀西·巴恩维克曾担任国际工程集团阿西布朗勃法瑞(ABB)的主席,之后他的任务就是开展全球化业务。
当时他决定将企业切分成一千多家小公司, 认为这样才能让公司既做到全球化又做到本土化。
在回答“你是如何开展全球化业务?”这个问题时,珀西·巴恩维克把它描述为“全球粘合剂”,即将ABB公司里许多各种各样的人粘合在一起。
接着,他又看出有必要解决公司存在的三个矛盾:既要权力下放,但又要集中控制,既要做大,同时又要做小,既要考虑全球化又要注意本土化。
Percy Barnevik: We have now for ten years after our big merger created a “global glue” where people are tied together, where they don’t internally compete, but support each other, and you have global leaders with global responsibility and your local managers working with their profit centers, and if you have the right, so to say, agenda for these people and the right structure, you can use a scale of economy and your advantages of bigness but being small. We used to say you have three contradictions: decentralized and still centrally controlled, big and small, global and local, and, of course, to try to make these contradictions work together effectively, then I think you have a big organizational competitive edge.珀西·巴恩维克:我们大兼并之后,创立的“全球粘合剂”现在也有十年了,在这个“粘合剂”里,人们都捆绑在一起,但内部之间并不相互竞争,而是相互支持;你既可以拥有负有全球性责任感的全球性领导者,也可以拥有为自己盈利中心而工作的本地经理;如果说你有权利,比如,人事安排议程和恰当的结构议程,那么你就有了一定经济规模可供使用,发挥以“小”获“大”的优点。