The World Is Flat--Part Deux
I had no more than blinked after finishing my post on Tom Friedman's book when I ran across this post by Rob Millard, author of The Adventure of Strategy. Rob highlighted the findings of Accenture in an article called Making The Trend Your Friend. Among the key findings:
3. The Accelerating Pace of Globalization
The pace of globalization and its effects have increased dramatically because of ubiquitous information connectivity. When major business functions, from production to sales, can be performed almost anywhere, it presents companies with unprecedented opportunities for both cost optimization and brand extension.
5. An Increasingly Complex and Fragile Business Environment
As business solutions and services become more elegant and complex, they also become more fragile and susceptible to business failure and security risks. With ever-larger infrastructures with more components, more things can go wrong. High mobility and extended customer reach increase the possible points of attack for those seeking to breach both information and physical security.
9. A Growing Public Demand for More Corporate Transparency and Better Governance and Accountability
Calls for stricter accounting and reporting standards and more transparency are coming not just from regulators but from employees and shareholders as well. Shareholders are also now routinely pressing companies about their environmental records, hiring and firing practices, fair trade policies and charitable contributions. A number of online business practices have come under public scrutiny as well. Even companies less vulnerable to these possible actions will face an increasing need to conduct themselves in accordance with emerging national and global standards.
But number 1, in my view, is this finding:
6. Shorter Time Frames for Decision Making
The increasing pace and complexity of business today means managing almost moment to moment, with an eye on both cost optimization and the quality of business performance. But many managers find themselves either unable to access the data needed to inform their decisions fast enough through their legacy IT systems, or overwhelmed by the amount of data available to them.
Those who respond to these forces will succeed. Those who don't . . .