1. The mindlessly global or hopelessly local pitfall of globalisation for the small to medium business entrepreneur, employee, national- and corporate companies

Most major companies operate in global markets today. However major local companies operate within countries and regions in a similar environment.  Major companies operate globally, thus forcing local companies and smaller entrepreneurs to follow suit.

Customers are more educated and is expecting the same quality, speed and attention regardless of the company’s size and footprint.

This does not only impact the environment these companies need to operate in, but also the environment and expectations of small to medium enterprises and employees.

Many articles have been written from a leadership perspective acknowledge the fact that customers are more educated and is expecting the same quality, speed and attention. Perchance it is valid to look at this changing environment from an employee perspective. 

3 mayor areas employees can improve on to staying ahead of the game:

1. Business language rules

Global business language mirrors local business languages and vice versa.  Decision making in this environment is not a matter of course anymore. The challenge in decision making is to avoid becoming either mindlessly global or hopelessly local.  This situation force leaders to taking decisions by being comfortable in an uncomfortable environment – forcing employees to work in an environment where they start to feel comfortable in an ever-changing working environment. Small to medium enterprises (SME) have to adept themselves in the same environment at their own costs.

2. Game field is the same

If the decision-making process is too far away from the local market the needs of the specific market can be overlooked and competitive advantage is lost.  Delaying decisions can frustrate employees who wants to meet the customer needs.  On the other hand, if the decision-making process is left to the local entity only it can lead to procrastination and ignorance of global expectations.  Reaching the correct balance is the responsibility of all the players including the customers to ensure that the value proposition and expected key performance indicators are clear and decisive. It will then be irrelevant if decision making rolls up from local entities to a regional decision-making office into a head office overseeing company policies and operations or from the head office down to the country.

Employees needs to familiarise themselves with the customer and company’s expectations. The game field is the same for all. Obvious more intricate for global- and major local companies than for SME’s. 

3. Decision making process

Once the decision has been made on where and in which sector the company wants to add value meeting customer expectations the fun can start. In global- and major local companies as well as SME’s a clear decision-making process that is communicated within as well as outside of the company is crucial to assure customer satisfaction and better-quality employee involvement.  Global companies may have to level the ground with the delegation of authority to be distributed to a local entity, allowing for quick decisions and avoidance of too much red tape. 

Local entitlement with a truthful leader leading in a specific region or country may also contributes to healthier teamwork and self-worth experience of employees.  The SME’s may have to talk into a mirror, a coach or mentor for the reflecting their ideas.  Yet, communication is the key to success. The success of such a team and leader will be seen in the bottom line and results of a company as well as the retention rate of employees and customers.

With all this said, this environment is perfect for creating new SME’s, this breed of people is growing rapidly in markets across the globe. Even though operating in the same environment, with less money and resources they can be very competitive and is surely rising to the occasion.

Where does one start with the fun? ………..Read my next article called The RAPID decision-making process