Next Global Stage, The: Challenges and Opportunities in Our Borderless World (paperback) [ペーパーバック]

Whenever I meet top corporate strategists for the first time, Kenichi Ohmae's books always come up. Someone will ask, "Which one do you like best?" With The Next Global Stage, my answer has changed to this book. For those who want a more conceptual version of The World Is Flat that applies to future company and government decisions, The Next Global Stage is a good choice.

Mr. Ohmae makes several important arguments that will stimulate your mind for years to come.

1. Business decisions must be considered in terms of four dimensions in today's borderless world: communications, capital, corporations and consumers. This new perspective replaces his famous three c's in The Mind of the Strategist (competitors, the company and consumers).

2. The proper geographical entity to consider for decision making is a region rather than a nation state or a trading bloc. Such an entity will usually have at least 10 million people in it and will usually be part of a country.

3. Competitiveness is enhanced by expanding up and adding more common platforms (such as Windows, the Web, English, credit card systems, influential paradigms, and parallel educational backgrounds) whether as a company or as a geographical region.

4. Paradigms for making national political and economic policy are obsolete because they do not encompass solutions and money flows involving other countries. The new reality is here, but the paradigms to address the reality are not.

5. The borderless world has changed the tasks of political and business leaders in ways that most leaders are ignoring to their peril.

The book is enriched by a variety of perspectives involving geographic regions and countries that have prospered where success could not be assumed (such as companies in Sweden, Finland, Singapore, Dalian in China, the Multimedia Super Corridor in Malaysia, and Ireland) and which regions have the potential to become such prosperity centers in the future (especially in Asia and the Baltic). Mr. Ohmae is a strategist . . . and also an entrepreneur. His examples of own businesses enliven and illuminate his points in ways that considering Dell cannot do alone.

Regional politicians and CEOs will find that they can use this book to help decide which questions and issues they should be addressing. Although it's not clear what exactly has to be done, the result will be more agile responses in terms of amending business and political models to fit the shifting environments than would otherwise occur. As someone who advocates continuing business innovation in The Ultimate Competitive Advantage, I was pleased to see that Mr. Ohmae reaches the same conclusion in The Next Global Stage.

For those in Europe and the United States who are new to thinking about global competition and global supply chains, this book will be an essential primer to help acquire the insights needed to prosper over the next decade.

The first thing I noticed about this book were the actual words and sentence structure. I do not want to make too much out of it, but you can tell that the author is not a native westerner. This made the book more enjoyable for me because of the sing song way the author writes. Now on to the book. One could argue that the world has changed more in the last 20 years then ever before and it is due to or has caused what we call globalization. Everything is changing and at a much faster pace then most of us would like. This book takes a good look at how business and individuals can take advantage of or at least be prepared for even further globalization.

The book starts by taking a look at the current state of the world and how we fit into it. The author talks to us about the areas of the world that are exploding as well as the overall global economy. The author then explores what major trends are taking place in the global economy. He ends the book with a review of how the trends he covered will change nations governments. Overall it is a very interesting and well written book. I felt I was learning something new on each page. The only minor criticism I would have is that the author did seem to be very confident in him self to the point of being a bit arrogant. The book is well worth your time if you are interested in the global economy.

This book was a pleasant surprise. The author argues that economic theories have become outdated by our new realities, especially technology and international outsourcing. The information about specific economies, such as Finland's, is fascinating. The author's Japanese background forces Americans (like me) to recognize a new perspective.

I related to this book because I work via computer from a small town in southern New Mexico. I do business with people I will never see and take receipts (via credit card) from all over the world. So I live the society Ohmae writes about (except that he needs to revise his belief about technololgical aptitude of the over-40 set).

Ohmae is best when he's discussing global strategies on a broad, conceptual level. When it comes to implementation, the discussion gets fuzzier. For instance, it's hard to imagine any government voluntarily changing, especially in terms of giving up power.

And while new leaders need to be trained in analytical thinking, our current educational system seems to be moving to rote memory, tested by exams. While borders may be coming down, security measures are going up.

I was also a little puzzled by Ohmae's discussion of distance learning. He's right: mainstream universities in the US have tended to regard distance learning as an unwanted stepchild. Yet he fails to observe that "alternative" universities have seized the opportunity to attract working adults with money and motivation. The quality of these non-traditional options can vary a great deal -- perhaps an example of a market failure.

I believe this book should be read in conjunction with another Wharton business book, Power of Impossible Thinking. Ohmae introduces a new mental model: a world where borders disappear as we use ATMs and buy through credit cards. Yet (as Wind et al point out) some paradigm shifts are two-way streets: many institutions continue to retain old-fashioned gateways.

For instance, in the US, we still have archaic state borders that make little sense today. There's a certain irony when the term "long distance call" has lost meaning, but if we move across a state line, we need new health insurance.

In a more amusing example, I was offered a part-time job where I'd be working from home, over a thousand miles from the institution, communicating over the Internet. The company sent complex forms that had to be completed by hand (lots of little square boxes) and also a form to sign, promising I would bring no illegal drugs to the workplace. I do not use drugs but I wondered, "Does this mean no catnip for the cats in the room I use for my office? What does 'the workplace' mean when you're telecommuting?"

I didn't pursue the job ...but after reading both this book and Power of Impossible Thinking (Wind et al.) I realized I was caught up in a conflict of mental models created by the Next Global Stage.