4
Strategy
How to Compete
The introduction to this book discussed the globalization yo-yo effect: the relation between swings in sentiments about globalization and shifts in supposed imperatives for global companies, as illustrated by Coke before and after the Asian financial crisis. Coke focused its strategy on standardization and scale economies (aggregation) under Roberto Goizueta before the crisis and then shifted to localization and market responsiveness (adaptation) under Douglas Daft, who went as far as to make “Think local, act local” his mantra. The introduction also noted that pure adaptation hadn’t worked out any better for Coke in the early 2000s than pure aggregation had earlier.
Similar calls to localize are, however, in the air ...
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