Globality: challenger companies are radically redefining the competitive landscape

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to herald a new phase of worldwide trade and economic development which the authors call “globality.” Increasingly, companies from every part of the world will be competing – for customers, resources, talent and intellectual capital – with each other in every one of the world's markets.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper produces evidence that incumbent global leaders will increasingly be forced to defend turf they thought they had won and secured long ago; and their expansion into emerging markets will be challenged as never before.

Findings

The paper finds that the challenger companies have grown from local to global, but instead of squelching local differences, they encouraged them. They retained their bias toward a decentralized management style, which allows them to leverage each new viewpoint as a new source of expertise, market knowledge, and best practice. They have mastered synthesizing many points of view.

Practical implications

Challengers view the world as a collection of diverse regions, each requiring strong local leadership with autonomy to act knowledgably, quickly, and decisively. To compete, incumbents must recognize that the era of globality is here now; learn from challengers; and adapt.

Originality/value

The study found that the challengers companies are able to devolve control, without descending into chaos, a huge competitive advantage. And they are innovating new centers of executive influence and new governance structures that support multiple independent centers of activity, while still leveraging global scale.

Citation

Sirkin, H.L., Hemerling, J.W. and Bhattacharya, A.K. (2008), "Globality: challenger companies are radically redefining the competitive landscape", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 36 No. 6, pp. 36-41. https://doi.org/10.1108/10878570810918340