It's Time to Start Talking Glocalization

As far as I can tell, glocalization is in its infancy. Not that it's a novel concept. The simple idea of understanding the implications of developing a hybrid of global practices and local practices when running a business seems obvious. But, in practice, it doesn't always turn out that way. If you Google "glocalization", you should tend to notice that the term is being used quite extensively in social science circles. Many professors are taking a look at the global landscape and are trying to argue that the most productive way to tackle many of the problems the world faces today is to not only understand the goals of a global initiative but with those goals in mind, pay attention to the local culture. In other words, as the world peace website, glocal.net preaches, "Think Globally, Act Locally". I love this concept and I don't think that its targeted nearly enough regardless of whether we're talking about world peace or efficient business practices.

In business, glocalization is a term used primarily by the Japanese. They call it "dochakuka". They are using the concept to compete with other "global" companies more efficiently. For instance: Consider a Toyota commercial. In the United States, the latest tag line and theme for Toyota is "Keep Moving Forward". That's pretty good. They can develop an entire advertising campaign around that concept while continuing to plug away at building good cars very efficiently. But. Would the same tag line work as well in Japan? How 'bout Canada? (I like, "Good car, Eh?" much better). How 'bout Germany? (Nicht Schnell). "Keep Moving Forward" may work in these countries, but thanks to cultural (local) differences, it might not work as well. I know companies do this by default. The person who came up with "Keep Moving Forward" most likely works and lives in America. But I'm not qualified nor am I interested in discussing this phenomenon at a truly global level. It seems obvious, but my point here is that companies assume glocalization, but if its the fundamental principle of your actions, then situations will likely crop up where a business can compete while other companies "spin their wheels" implementing things with a purely global or purely local mentality.

Enter Information Technology. If I look back over the landscape of my IT career, I can see multiple attempts at Centralization (globalization) and De-centralization (localization). As my dad would say, it goes in ebbs and flows. With his IT career being twice as long as mine, he's seen those ebb and flows too many times to mention. Management constantly struggles with which concept is best. A centralized system would make administration cheaper and easier to control. Standardized backup, security and software licensing procedures would be a cinch. But what about the customer? Who do they call when Jimmy goes from their LAN guy to one of a group of LAN guys who are so busy that they get there when they get there. And, while we're talking about Jimmy, how do we replace Jimmy's expertise. He knows that the Divisional VP really doesn't know what he's doing when he touches his machine, so Jimmy understands the care it takes to respond to him. The centralized group doesn't know this nearly as well. "Too bad", you say? Tell that to the group of centralized LAN guys who are being downsized because of cost and because the customers don't really like them anyway.

So, then, de-centralize, right? Well, Jimmy is a good LAN guy and his customers love him, but he's not very organized. Trouble calls come right to his cell phone and he doesn't note what he did to fix all of the problems that he fixes. Therefore, if the problem crops up again, he either needs to remember what he did, or he has to troubleshoot the problem again. Jimmy makes changes to his routers at will and he doesn't save a copy of the old configuration files. Why should he? He knows what he did. He loosely concentrates on security and backup standards and he purchases whatever software packages he wants for his network. And forget about Preventative Maintenance. Jimmy is just too darn busy fighting fires to do the work that it would take for him not to have to fight as many fires. So centralize, right? (GOTO paragraph 3).

My question is, why not take the best of both worlds? That's easy to say, but not easy to do unless its the fundamental principle from which you approach your business situations. This concept is so simple, yet so big, yet so elusive, it will take many more blogs to get my point across. But, whether we like it or not, glocalization is not going to go away. It's everywhere. And it's time to start talking Glocalization.

My Tribute to 2006

Dear 2006,

Fuck you.

Love,
Ron