Business is becoming
increasingly global. The barriers to trade continue to fall, and level of trade
among countries continues to rise. The result is that a firm’s competitors may
no longer be in the next state or province but in a country that it hardly knew
existed a few years ago.
Nowadays many products are
purchase in a different country where it produces. This is actually what it
happen around the world. For instance, the cars that we use, all the parts are
from different country or region; tiers made in United States, the technology
that the car is using is from japan,
after car is assembled in Mexico and
finally the car is ship it to Colombia to sell it. The example show us how the
business manages today, the majority of the product are made in one country,
and then is commercialized in another one. Today, we can see that the business
is global. Companies around the world must be interdependent network in order
to be competitive in the market.
Other example that show us the
idea of globalization is; “Product such as marble monuments and headstones
could previously be produced in the United States in Vermont or Georgia and be
assured of a relatively secure market. Yet today it is cheaper to mine in
china, produce a monument there, and ship it to the United States than to
produce the same product domestically”[1].
These two examples previously mentioned show us the way of produce many product
today, due to the globalization the way to produce and do business is completely
different, in the way that now your competition is not local, but global.
Nowadays this is one of the main reasons that many companies around the world
declare in bankruptcy, the competition is too aggressive, and if you are no
prepared to be competitive in the market ,the only way that companies has is to
shut down the factory and every day will be harder to maintain in the market.
Furthermore, we can see the
difficult assignment that Managers and CEO of different enterprises or
medium-size company face it in nowadays,
they must think global, as a manager we need to think what is the best for our
company, in order to succeed and be competitive with our competition, for
instance, if we produce shoes, we need to think where can we get our raw
materials, machinery, technology and so on in lower prices to get a minor
prices in our final product and be more competitive in the market, to accomplish
this aim, is possible that we need to import this material from a foreign
country where is “cheap” or we can purchase a lower price than our country, in
this process we need to interact with other culture, persons with other way to
do business and different way of thinking, with political issues, logistic,
social and economic aspects, that we need to manage perfectly, if we don’t want
to fail.
According with I mentioned
before, an international manager need to have several new skills that permit
him adapted with the different countries and cultures they might deal with.
They need to understand the different political, cultures, social and economic
aspects of the countries in which they are going to do business with.
Due to the globalization, the
way of doing business is changing, in order to succeed in this process, companies
would need skilled management able to take advantage of the opportunities propose
by the globalization and not to take the globalization as obstacle.
The book International management:
concepts and cases define, “international management as the determination and
completion of specific actions and transaction conducted in and/or with foreign
countries in support of organization policies”[2].
In other words international management it is the practice of managing business
operations in more than one country, as I showed in the past examples. In order
to succeed there is a particular type of
skills, knowledge and understanding needed by managers who are in charge of
operations that involve people from different countries and cultures, this will
be the daily basis for many manager how are in charge of many companies around
the world.
Other definition of international management is :“Management is
about people working in organizations, and international management is about
people from many cultures working together, competing against one another, or
trying to cope with another’s differences. “[3]As
we see in this concept international management go beyond than local managing
with people of the same culture or way to do business than yours. to accomplish
a successful international management it is important to make a process of
adaptation, because as the definition says, now you might be working with
people that have a different way of
thinking, languages, politics and ways
to doing business so is important to be open minded and find the way to manage
this situation the best possible. Because of this, is important to investigate
and understand how thing work in those countries.
The international management
encompasses all activities of an enterprise in locations outside it is home
country. These include the operation of branch offices, working with companies
or the posting of workers or might be your position that now needs you to move
abroad, According to this, Managers must have the ability to managing and
controlling all the operation abroad and have excellent relation with the new
labor forces, that might be different that yours, as we know labor force is an
important part inside of the companies.
“Decisions made within the
organization are influenced by internal factors such as strategy and the skills
held by the labor force, and factors within is business environment , including
the market and he activities of competitors.”[4] Due to this, we must consistently
comply with the new work atmosphere that gives the
work abroad and find
the best way to manage and control
any situation that arises with
co workers. Additional to this is
the best strategy for achieving put us in the
best position in the market and our
competitors. It’s important to apply management
concepts and techniques to their contexts in firms working in multinational and
multicultural environments.
“The primary factor that has
prevent the creation of a culture of excellent in many international business
firms is that they have tended to be over managed and underled. Managers in
these organizations may excel in the ability to handle the daily routine, yet
never question whether the routine should be done at all. In this regards,
there is a profound difference between management and leadership, but one
should readily organize that both are important. To “manage” means to bring
about, to accomplish, to have charge of or responsibility, for and to conduct.
Leading is influencing, guiding in direction, course, action, and opinion. The
distinction is crucial. Managers are people who do things right, and leaders
are people who do the rights things. The difference may be summarized as
activities of vision and judgment, which facilitate effectiveness as a leader,
versus activities of mastering routines, which facilitate efficiency as a
manager. “[5]
In conclusion, there is no
questionable doubt of the important of international management in the international
and national context. Nowadays companies need manager’s skillful Sound business
skills and expertise are essential to address internationalization. As open as
a result of globalization, more and more companies looking to get into new markets
thus increase the demand for qualified employees. You need both a solid
business knowledge base and a corresponding know-how regarding the way of
dealing with specific cultural characteristics and socio-economic
circumstances. Language skills and mobility are just as indispensable as the
joy of dealing with other cultures.
[1] Ahlstrom , D &
Bruton, G 2009 , International management: Strategy and culture in the emerging
world, Cengage Learning, United States
[2] Thakur
M , Burton G & Srivastava N, 2001
International Management: Concepts and cases, McGraw-Hill Education,
[4] Mead, R & Andrews,
T 2009, International management, 4th ed. John Wiley & sons Ltd
, England.
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