White Paper – Globalisation Introduction Globalisation is, arguably, the most-discussed topic in the business environment in Scandinavia and, we guess, most other geographical regions. Not one day passes without a definitive statement on the issue of globalisation – either “for” or “against”. Globalisation is blamed, on the one hand, for everything from child labour to environmental disasters; while on the other hand, globalisation is promoted as the means to increase economic growth. So, does the world really need yet another report on globalisation? Has everything – and more than enough – already been said? While acknowledging the sheer number of books, reports, articles and seminars on globalisation, we still found something was missing, i.e. the concrete answer to what actually works for Scandinavian companies. We looked high and low, but mostly found companies promoting anecdotes, volumes of theory, checklists based mostly on Anglo-Saxon companies, fancy buzzwords that mean nothing in practice, and impossible, self-promoting individual case stories generalised into science. In short: lots of talk, many words and a host of activity, but not enough action. In our view, this is not good enough, since what we need is a clear and focused Scandinavian view of what really matters in a company’s ongoing quest for globalisation. Consequently, in the summer of 2012 Valcon dedicated 100 days to identifying the good and bad globalisation experiences of Scandinavian companies of many different sizes and structures. We know that companies are different, with different needs, so what follows is an à la carte catalogue of ideas and practices. You are welcome to look them over and pick the ones that you find most relevant for your company and your globalisation context. Not everything is relevant for everyone, which is exactly the point. It was not our ambition to uncover the full, total and irreversible truth of globalisation levers for Scandinavian companies: the one-size-fits-all recommendation that will work well for all companies – regardless of size, history and experience. However, we did set out to collect the best, most relevant and most useful set of experiences – the “how to and how not to” from Scandinavian companies and for Scandinavian companies. We know that companies are different, with different needs, so what follows is an à la carte catalogue of ideas and practices. You are welcome to look them over and pick the ones that you find most relevant for your company and your globalisation context. 3
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