Next Global Stage: The: Challenges and Opportunities in Our Borderless World

by Ohmae, Kenichi

• ISBN13: 9780131479449
• ISBN10: 013147944X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-01-01
• Publisher: Wharton School Publishing

Summary

A radically new world is taking shape from the ashes of yesterday's nation-based economic world. To succeed, you'll need to act on a global stage - and master entirely new rules about the sources of economic power and the drivers of growth. In The Global Stage, legendary business strategist Kenichi Ohmae synthesizes today's emerging trends into the first coherent view of tomorrow's global economy, and its implications for politics, business, and personal success. As important as Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations, as fascinating and relevant as Friedman's The Lexus and the Olive Tree, this book doesn't just explain what's happened: it prepares you for what will happen next.

Author Biography

Kenichi Ohmae is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at UCLA. Distinguished Visiting Professor of Korea University and Professor Emeritus at Ewha Women's University in Korea, Trustee and Adjunct Professor of Bond University in Australia, as well as Dean of Kenichi Ohmae Graduate School of Management of BBT University in Japan. In September 2002, he was named the advisor of Liaoning Province and Tianjin City in China.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xvii
The Plot	xxiv
Part I: The Stage	1	(78)
The World Tour	3	(24)
The Curtain Rises	3	(2)
The World as a Stage	5	(1)
A Speedy Global Tour	6	(12)
Meanwhile in Ireland	10	(3)
Finland: In from the Cold	13	(5)
What Is the Global Economy?	18	(9)
Borderless	20	(2)
Invisible	22	(1)
Cyber-Connected	23	(1)
Measured in Multiples	23	(4)
Opening Night	27	(18)
The World AG	27	(1)
Leading the Dinosaur	28	(2)
The View From the Hotel: Detroit	30	(3)
Busting the Budget	33	(2)
Gates to the Future	35	(2)
14 AG: China	37	(5)
Putting an ``e'' in Christmas	42	(3)
The End of Economics	45	(34)
Reinventing Economics	45	(4)
Economic Theories That Once Fitted the Times	49	(8)
New Fundamentals Require New Thinking	53	(1)
Turning the Taps On and Off	54	(2)
Deflation and the GDP Deflator	56	(1)
Interests Rates and Nest Eggs	57	(2)
Can Physics Help?	58	(1)
A Complex World	59	(2)
The Curve Ball	61	(4)
Oscillating Wildly	62	(3)
Paradigm II	65	(14)
The Power of Politics	65	(2)
The Difficulty of Changing Habits	67	(4)
Uncle Sam Goes Global	71	(4)
The New Economic Paradigm	75	(4)
Part II: Stage Directions	79	(112)
Playmakers	81	(44)
Finding Your Bearings on the Global Stage	81	(6)
How Nation-States Retard Economic Development	87	(6)
The Nation-State Fetish	88	(2)
Strong States	90	(2)
The Rise of the Region	92	(1)
Defining the Region-State	93	(10)
Indian Summers	96	(2)
Carried Away in China	98	(4)
Not All Regions Are Created Equal	102	(1)
Surprising China	102	(1)
Microregions	103	(7)
Flexibility	106	(1)
Size and Scale Matter, But Not in a Traditional Way	107	(2)
Regions Are Gaining Their Deserved Recognition	109	(1)
Practical Considerations	110	(1)
What a Successful Region Has to Do	111	(4)
Branding Places	113	(1)
The Will to Succeed	114	(1)
Organizing Regions	115	(10)
Other Unions	119	(2)
Free Trade Area or Fortress?	121	(4)
Platforms for Progress	125	(20)
Relentlessly Forward	125	(2)
Developing Technology Platforms	127	(5)
Language as Platform	132	(2)
English Inc.	134	(3)
The Platform Profusion	137	(1)
Other Platforms	138	(7)
Out and About	145	(28)
Border Crossings	145	(3)
Technology: The Fairy Godmother	148	(1)
BPO: India as a Launch Pad	149	(3)
Dormant India	152	(5)
More Than a One-Country Wonder	157	(4)
BPO as a Platform	161	(2)
Home Sweet Home	163	(1)
Myths and Half-Truths	164	(2)
The View from India	166	(4)
Reaping the Benefits	170	(2)
BPO in a Borderless World	172	(1)
Breaking the Chains	173	(18)
The Portal Revolution	173	(1)
The Search	174	(1)
Have You Been Googled Recently?	175	(3)
Paying the Bill: The Payment Revolution	178	(1)
On the Rails	179	(1)
Delivery: The Logistics Revolution	180	(3)
The Arrival of the Micro Tag	183	(2)
Cool Chains and Fresh Food	185	(2)
Deliverance	187	(1)
Using Logistics to Solve Bigger Problems	188	(2)
For Dinner	190	(1)
Part III: The Script	191	(82)
Reinventing Government	193	(30)
Disappearing Power	193	(3)
Beyond Distribution	196	(4)
Size Matters	198	(1)
Downsizing and Resizing	199	(1)
A Vision for Change	200	(1)
The Japanese Vision	201	(1)
Mapping the Future	202	(2)
Visions Versus Mirages	204	(6)
Government Vision	204	(1)
Getting Noticed	205	(1)
Only Educate	206	(2)
Closing Down Distance	208	(2)
A New Role for Government	210	(13)
China: Governing the Ungovernable	211	(2)
Malaysia's Corridors of Power	213	(1)
Singapore's Appetite for Reinvention	214	(3)
Swedish Rhapsody	217	(3)
The Craic of the Irish	220	(3)
The Futures Market	223	(32)
All Change	223	(1)
The Technological Future	224	(14)
Technological Progress Means Death Is a Fact of Business Life	225	(8)
The Rise of VoIP and Its Impact on Telecoms	233	(2)
Join the March Early	235	(3)
The Personal Future	238	(6)
Embrace Leadership	239	(2)
Value Information and Innovation	241	(2)
Embrace Flexibility	243	(1)
The Corporate Future	244	(11)
The Homeless Corporation	246	(1)
Innovation, Inc.	247	(3)
The Adaptive Corporation	250	(1)
Beyond Hierarchy	251	(4)
The Next Stage	255	(14)
The Regional Future	255	(1)
Hainan Island	256	(2)
Petropavlosk-Kamchatsily, Russia	258	(1)
Vancouver and British Columbia	259	(1)
Estonia	260	(2)
The Baltic Corner	262	(1)
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam	263	(3)
Khabarovsk, Maritime (Primorye) Province and Sakhalin Island, Russia	266	(1)
Sao Paulo, Brazil	266	(1)
Kyushu, Japan	267	(2)
Postscript	269	(4)
Reopening the Mind of the Strategist	269	(2)
Beyond the Daydream	271	(2)
Index	273

Excerpts

The Global Stage IntroductionIdeas do not emerge perfectly formed. They are awkward amalgams of experience, insight, hopes, and inspiration. They arrive on stage, blinking under the bright lights, hesitant, unsure as to the audience's likely reaction. They evolve and develop, alert to changing reactions and circumstances.I have been rehearsing the arguments that form the backbone ofThe Global Stagefor over two decades. My previous books, includingThe Borderless WorldandThe Invisible Continent,examined many of the issues I am still exploring. Ideas, as I say, do not emerge in a state of perfection.In its genesis,The Global Stagehas been shaped by two forces.First, bearing witness to changing circumstances. Over the last two decades, the world has changed substantially. The economic, political, social, corporate, and personal rules that now apply bear scant relation to those applicable two decades ago.Different times require a new script.The trouble is that far too often we find ourselves reading from much the same tired script. With the expansion of the global economy has come a more unified view of the business world. It is seen as a totality in itself, not constricted by national barriers. This view has been acquired, not by the traditional cognitive route of reading textbooks or learned articles. Instead, it has come directly, through exposure to the world, frequent travel, and mixing with the world's business people. Paradoxically, perhaps, this breeds a similarity of outlook. Opinions and perspectives are shared; the type of developments in the political and economic worlds that are held to be important are shared too. With shared outlooks come shared solutions. But a common view of the world will not produce the unorthodox solutions and responses required by the global stage.Over the last 30 years, I have traveled to 60 countries as a consultant, speaker, and vacationer. Some countries, like the United States, I have visited over 600 times; Korea and Taiwan, 200 times each; and Malaysia, 100 times. Recently, I have been averaging six visits a year to China and have started a company in Dalian, as well as producing 18 hours of television programs seeking to explain what is really happening there in business and politics. I also spend a lot of time on the Gold Coast in Australia and in Whistler, Canada. Of course, as a Japanese national, I live in Tokyo and travel extensively within Japan.As you can see, I believe that nothing is more important than actually visiting the place, meeting with companies, and talking to CEOs, employees, and consumers. That is how you develop a feel for what is going on. For some of my visits, I have taken groups of 40-60 Japanese executives so they can witness first hand regions that are attracting money from the rest of the world. I have taken groups to Ireland to see how cross-border Business Process Outsourcing is reshaping its economy. I have taken them to see Italy's small towns that are thriving on the global stage. We have also visited Scandinavian countries to find out why they have emerged as the world's most competitive nations and Eastern Europe to see how they may be positioned in the extended 25-member European Union. The group has also visited China and the United States twice, as well as India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Korea, and Australia.The executives who join me on these trips change their views of the world. Even in the days of the Internet and global cable news, walking around, listening, looking, and asking a question is still the best way to learn. Seeing what is happening in the world first hand changes perspectives. Having witnessed the global stage, executives then begin to read newspapers and watch television with different eyes. Gradually, their views broaden and they feel comf