The Quest for Global Dominance: Transforming Global Presence into Global Competitive Advantage, Second Edition

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Building Global Presence

There is a race and a lot of people are qualified forthe race. But to go global, you need to be earlyenough. Generally in new countries you need tobe the first in for the first win. When you arrive asnumber three or four, it is too late.

—Daniel Bernard, Chairman (1993–2005), Carrefour¹

The starting point in the quest for global dominance is to build global market presence. The framework and set of conceptual ideas presented in this chapter can guide firms in approaching the strategic challenge of casting their business lines overseas and establishing global presence. How should the firm choose which of its multiple product lines to use as the initial launch vehicle for the global market? What factors make some markets ...