Question

How would you describe this period (1990’s to early 2000’s)? Is globalization 'Americanization? What can nations prepare themselves to capitalize on globalization? What are the implications for managers?

Answer 1

The given period can be described as a period of growth with few hiccups. Year 1990 and 1991 went through a recession and then the economy started growing with a positive growth rate. In 1991, there was a negative growth rate (-.1%) and afterwards economy grew with a healthy growth rate.  In the context of the global economy, there was a spread of globalization, economies opening up and implementing liberalization policies. Then came the technology bubble burst in the year 2000. This time, the GDP growth rate was 1%.  Afterwards, the economy recovered and started growing again.

Globalization is not about Americanization, because US culture also gets equally affected by the international trade and US culture also adopts the characteristics of other cultures. Under globalization, economies open up and international trade takes place and people move from one place to another place. It breaks the cultural rigidity and people indulge in new things. It is interpreted as Americanization, though it can come from other nations as well such as EU.

Nations should build a strong regulatory framework, economic policy framework and well structured capital market with risk management framework. Then, the nations should open up and get benefits from the globalization. Besides, nations should open up progressively and they should take one step or one sector at a time and never hurry in the process for long term benefits.

Implications for the manager is that, they should be ready for the volatile business environment, get trained with different cultural and behavioral skills to deal with the people and adapt to the international market scenarios.