Global Context Would Have to Have a

Global context would have to have a starting point, in order to give the evaluation some context. For a company engaged in international business, the answer is quite a bit different than for an NGO, or the average worker. In general, understanding how the world works is important, and one of the critical elements of that is the pattern of globalization. Numerous theories have been put forth about this, including "flat," "spiked" and "clustered," metaphors that require further definition in order to be understood.

The idea of the flat world comes from Thomas Friedman, who argued that advances in technology, communications, and transportation are reducing the importance of location in terms of competitive advantage. This is surely a vision of the future, or at least a direction in which the world is trending, since there remains significant differences and barriers between locations that prevent the world from being truly flat, at least today. The concepts of spikes and clusters are similar.

Spikes typically reflect cities -- the larger the city the bigger the spike (Florida, 2005). The concept of clustering is related, in that clusters of spikes make up key economic areas. Examples of clusters can be found, for example, in the Hong Kong-Macau-Shenzhen-Dongguan-Guangzhou area of China, or in Boston-New York-Philadelphia-Baltimore-DC area of the United States. Clusters are therefore groups of spikes that together form areas where there are broad factor similarities.

Where a cluster is entirely within a given country, like the Boston-DC corridor, there is little difference in the factor inputs because they have the same access to labor, capital, education, the same trade policies and so forth. Where there are clusters that span borders, like the one in southern China, they different components of the cluster are typically complementary of each other. Hong Kong is a financial capital and port, while Guangdong Province has spikes focused on manufacturing.

Florida (2008) notes that there are several trends to spikiness that are worth watching. He notes that incomes and power are gravitating towards the spikes -- or perhaps more accurately towards clusters. After all, San Francisco is a spike, but it is the collective spikes of San Jose and the Silicon Valley, Oakland and the rest of the Bay Area that creates a power cluster.

Florida notes that within the clusters, there is a high degree of mobility among the world's talented people, and when dealing on a cluster-to-cluster or spike-to-spike basis, the world is indeed flat. Thus, it is clear that things worth tracking would include the progress of economies, education standards, trade flows and capital flows, especially as they flow between the clusters. Further, it is also worth taking note where there are emerging clusters, or strong spikes that are not associated with a cluster.

These are the areas with strong potential, and as linkages form between such areas and nearby major clusters, the development of those cities will also improve. A first-world example might be whether Calgary joins Vancouver-Seattle-Portland as a cluster or remains on its own. Would a city like Tijuana find a complementary role to Southern California's cluster? These are the trends that need to be examined on a micro-level. Other micro-level trends that would need to be understood are the strength of the linkages between different clusters.

This will partially be the result of examination of different flows between clusters. Thus, when trade between clusters in China or Korea and West Coast clusters increases, this is likely to increase other linkages as well, creating global opportunities. The same would hold for links between clusters anywhere. On a macro level, it is important to understand what the trends mean for business.

Not only are opportunities made available as the result of increased trade, but when that trade increases opportunities for education and other development, trends will increase in intensity and the way the world interacts will change. This is the way that the world will move towards the flat paradigm, and it will begin with the leading clusters, and trickle down to small spikes and clusters, eventually to the rural areas. Understanding how these trends are emerging is important to understanding what direction human and economic development is taking.

Successful global leadership requires understanding how the knowledge and competencies of the leaders within the clusters are evolving. By understanding the different traits of the clusters, a global leader will be better equipped to determine the traits needed to succeed as the world evolves both economically and socially. Leaders must be aware of the trends, and.