Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution

Rating:
Summary: An appreciative book that looks forward into the future
Review: Now in an updated second edition, Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution by Christopher Bartlett (Daewoo Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School) and Sumantra Ghoshal (Professor of Strategic and International Management, The London Business School) is an informative introduction to the "transnational corporation", the new corporate phenomena of the interconnected global and digital age, which stretches its competition worldwide and fundamentally rewrites the nature of doing business. A fascinating, appreciative book that looks forward into the future, Managing Across Borders is highly recommended reading for anyone seeking to understand and capitalize on what the 21st century business community is evolving for purposes of international trade in a truly global and increasingly "borderless" age!

Rating:
Summary: Pathbreaking book
Review: This seminal book has been a part of my professional library for almost a decade, now. I am an Associate Professor in International Business and teach the subjects covered in this book. From this book a number of concepts have grown which continues to dominate the discussion of global management. Let me jus mention a few: administrative heritage, which is the idea, that the organisational structure of multidomestic enterprises reflects the historical period they were established in - especially with respect to the regime of coordination and communication. For instance, whereas the typical american firm entering Europe after 2ww would follow a strategy of tight operational control (given the business circumstances of this firm) Phillips, a multinational from the 19th century would display a strategy of much more delegation and subsidary autonomy.

Another concept is that of transnational companies - firms which simultaneously seek to adjust to local circumstances and enjoy the benefits of global integration. This idea remains a hot issue in global management even today - more than a decade after this book was published.