Industrial Sociology

¶ … Borderless World Kenichi Ohmae is a business consultant and the author of various books including The Borderless World- Power and Strategy in the interlinked economy, which appeared in 1990, and deals with nature of business and economy in this era of rapid globalization. The main purpose of the book according to Ohmae is to illustrate the benefits of globalization by highlighting the role played by multi-nationals in creating and distributing choices. This purpose should make the book interesting enough for readers to read beyond the preface.

Who doesn't want to know if globalization indeed has something positive to offer? With so much negative press, globalization truly deserves some positive comments and Ohmae undertakes this task but whether he succeeds or not is solely a matter of individual interpretation and perception. For some Ohmae is an expert whose views should be valued, but for others including myself, Ohmae often adopts the role of a smug consultant who assumes that each one of his readers would share his views and his negative image of governmental intervention.

At one point in the Preface for example, the author comes upon with an original term The Interlinked Economy for the three powerful economies of USA, Japan and Europe and declares that these economies along with some growing Asian economies have together become such a powerful force that "it has swallowed most consumers and corporations, made traditional national borders almost disappear, and pushed bureaucrats, politicians, and the military toward the status of declining industries." p xi.

Is that really so? Why does Ohmae think that his readers would share the same views because as far as my knowledge of governmental control is concerned, I believe, governments especially the ones with strong fiscal policies are still quite powerful and in some countries they have excessive control over regulation of financial markets. Taking one good look at recent governmental involvement in various economies including that of United States, I have to say I can't agree with Ohmae that government, bureaucrats and military have become 'declining industry'.

Throughout the books, Ohmae comes up with some highly original ideas and some completely cliched concepts but puts both forward with so much conviction that you cannot help but agree with him. It however takes some time to digest the concept, assess its validity, weigh its pros and cons and then decide whether it was actually sound to begin with.

However all these concepts revolve around one central thesis: Globalization is good and national borders are no longer important and therefore governments should stop interfering and let global economy strengthen on its own.

He maintains that global corporations have two important concerns, country and currency: "Most companies have to move more deeply into the countries where they seek to neutralize the impact of currency as well as the possibilities of protectionism." p.9 and therefore while global firms do their job, government must focus on its sole concern which is creation of jobs.

That is true to certain extent, but even if we agree with Ohmae that the only objective of governments is to create jobs, wouldn't this automatically lead to involvement in other areas including production and labor movement to other countries etc. I cannot see how government can stick with creation of jobs without getting involved in other areas of business and economy.

Some of the concepts, as I mentioned earlier, are so trite that the reader may wonder why would someone with the experience and expertise of Ohmae bother to mention them in his book. For example don't we already know that a good strategy should be based on "painstaking attention to the needs of the customers" and "close analysis of a company's real degrees of freedom in responding to those needs." p 33.

Similarly, I am certain managers around the world are familiar with the concept that customers are your valued clients regardless of their geographical location or that "A corporation is a social institution whose responsibilities extend far beyond the well-being of the equity owners to giving security and a good life to its employees, dealers, customers, vendors, and subcontractors." p 208 Apart from these concepts, there are some other rather ambiguously defined terms which are either never used in the book after first explanation such as NIH (not invented here) or could have easily been replaced with some more well-known term.

Similarly there are some passages and even chapters, which should have been edited or completely omitted including the one titled ' The China Mentality'. This chapter destroys the purpose of the book altogether. If national boundaries are not important or the national association of a global firm doesn't count anymore, why attack the 'mentality' of one of the most aggressive if relatively new advocate of free trade.

However we must admit that there is some sensible advice in the book especially in Chapter 11, where the author discusses the importance of branding, value addition and positioning. "The island of Jamaica produces Blue Mountain coffee, which sells in Japan for four times the price of Brazilian coffee. Is it four times better? Probably not. Blind taste tests show little difference. What is different, however, is the clever and determined branding of the coffee -- in other words, the managed effort to add value.

This is no different from the value added by such fashion houses as.