MANAGING IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY: GILLETTE COMPANY
This research examines global management through an assessment of the operations of the Gillette Company. A brief background review on the conceptual framework is followed by an analysis of the company's operations.
The conduct of international business by multinational corporations proceeds according to well accepted concepts that have been developed over the past several decades. The changing environment of international business, however, is causing the conduct of international business to evolve from a multinational to a global perspective (Schary and Skjott Larsen, 1990, p. 5). Within the context of the evolving global perspective, both organizational and strategy changes are required for the adaptation of the multinational corporation to the changing global environment. Comprehensive and incisive management is an integral function in the conduct of any international business. Its role becomes even more crucial, when a global perspective is assumed by a multinational corporation.
Christopher Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal (1992, pp. 11 14) contend that the required shift in corporate is greater and more complex than a transition from multinational to global perspectives. Bartlett and Ghoshal posit that the initial transition in corporate perspective for the company that extended its operations beyond the borders of its home country was from a national to an international outlook. An international perspective for most such companies, however, meant viewing
transborder operations as simply extensions of domestic operations, wherein the primary objectives of a company's operations in foreign countries was the support of the company's domestic operations.
The transition from an international to a multinational perspective occurred, according to Bartlett and Ghoshal (1992, p. 12), as international corporations began to realize that the opportunities presented to them...