Global Business Strategy has been a class divided into three main themes: globalization, global trends, and emerging markets. Through each of the 13 course sessions we discussed and dove into each of the themes, always relating them back to how the course may affect who we are today and how we may take the lessons learned into the real world.

 

We began the course before the semester started by introducing ourselves to Thomas Friedman and his ideals on how humans can adapt their learning strategies to keep up with the advancing world of today and tomorrow. We were asked to respond to five “simple” questions which I provided the original answers to on my blog entry in Class Archives on January 31, 2017. I think the best way to synthesis the course and discuss how I have changed through the semester is returning to those five questions and seeing how my responses changed. To complete this, I will answer the following questions before looking back at my original responses and then I will use the comparison between the two to project how I have changed through the semester

 

THE QUESTIONS:

1) How is the global environment changing?

2) What are the implications of these changes for organizations?

3) What are the implications of these changes for you personally?  

4) What are the key aims of Tom Friedman with the book Thank You For Being Late.

5) Explain the importance of reflection.   

 

I will be skipping over question four, as these can be found in Friedman & Co.’s blog on Thank You For Being Late.

 

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How has the global environment changing?

 

The global environment involves political, economic, cultural, and geographic forces. Many times, people will lump political and economic changes together, but as many of the Ted Talks I listened to mentioned, it is important to separate the two worlds  and deal with each apart, while keeping in mind how to unify both to a perfect system for all. Politically, especially in the US, many angry citizens have turned away from globalization and toward populist beliefs. They want to put up barriers and walls to prevent outside countries, people, and money from coming into their “world” as they believe the outsiders are the ones harming their lives. Friedman and Ghemawat discuss these fears and while they have different paths to a conclusion, those conclusions are the same: if we close barriers and go backwards, we may end up completely devastating and ruining the world as we know it. We may end up in another depression, because that is what happened the last time we tried to close our country from others, and that depression spread to the entire world and we are still healing today.

 

We are also going through some serious economic issues - income inequality is rising as unemployment is not being fixed and many people are feeling the brunt of this harsh reality. We have mounds of debts and we are hemorrhaging money to needless things. The corporate world is only making it worse as they hoard their cash, rather than investing it into new innovations and emerging markets. These two players are the Twin Peaks that Yanis Varoufakis spoke about in his “Capitalism will eat democracy - unless we speak up” Ted talk. He argues that we need to bring the demos back into our political system and take the power out of the hands of the rich and back into the hands of the people.

 

Culturally, the world is aging and we need to deal with that issue. Currently, we are just trying to push away these retirement issues and trust in the future to deal with the problem. But the longer we wait, the bigger the problem is going to be.

Lastly, geographic issues focus mainly on true environmental causes. Global warming is real and it is due in major part by human actions. Many people will choose to ignore science and facts and try to say that it does not exist. But it is happening and if the global leaders (including the US) do not take action, the world as we know it will no longer exist.

 

MY RESPONSE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR:

Scientist have proved time and time again that our global environment is warming at a faster rate than ever before – largely due to human actions. These changes include “climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, changes in ecosystems…, changes in hydrological stems, land degradation, urbanization, and stresses on food-producing systems” (World Health Organization). Some of the change is due to normal shifts in our world’s geographic structure and almost all of the changes will affect human health negatively.

 

THE CHANGE:

At the beginning of the year, it seems that I was mainly concerned with the geographic issues affecting the world, when in reality there is so much more out there. This course has allowed me to open my global mindset beyond the surface. While the environment and health concerns are important, we must solve the political and economic instability in our world before we can focus on these other issues. We need to call to action our world leaders and mobilize to solve the corruption, debt, and money crises out there. Through economic stability, we will be able to fix the rest of the issues. (hopefully).

 

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What are the implications of these changes for organizations?

 

The biggest implication lies within the twin peaks of the world, specifically that second peak. Corporations need to leave their fears behind and actually reinvest their cash back into humanity. This is more than normal Corporate Social Responsibility issues - this means taking their investments abroad in a safe, and humane way. This means taking a change on the emerging markets and treating them fairly so they may become a high return on investment and maybe stand on their own feet. It is not a quick turn around and it will not be easy, honestly, I do not even know how to make that change. But it needs to be done. The peaks need to cancel each other out before capitalism destroys itself from within. The pandemic is coming, and no matter how many changes the political system makes, the corporations needs to make some changes before our world will begin to feel the stabilization.

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MY RESPONSE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR:

The implications of global environment change for organizations require drastic change on their part and how they treat the environment. As many government agencies implement regulations to control and hopefully reverse many of the effects of climate change, organizations will have to refine their own operations. This includes everything from how they dispose of waste, to how they treat their personnel. Organizations need to be much more outward looking these days and utilize and/or create a stronger Corporate Social Responsibility Presence.

 

THE CHANGE:

While much of this answer related to the changes for the environment, my last sentence makes the best case for organizations: the “need to be much more outward looking”. This is a message that remains true to me even after the course is over - but the outward looking expands to more than the environment and I hope that I can make corporations see this through my work in fundraising with non-profits. But we will talk about this more later.

 

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What are the implications of these changes for me personally?

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The global changes today have really made me believe that I am going into the correct field for my career. It means that I am going to have to fight a harder fight, but that doesn’t mean it is an impossible one. Sometimes it takes an outside opinion to change those on the inside of the issue. I really do believe that nonprofits can be a game changer for corporations. While those companies ultimately decide where they put their money, if nonprofits fight the correct fights, they can enact change and put money into good investments- investments that can have positive social change that last for a long time.

 

MY RESPONSE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR:

Personally, the ever increasing change to the environment and the most recent political changes in this world pushes me now, more than ever, to enter into the nonprofit world and create change from the outside. Informing corporations and individuals about the importance of living a cleaner and healthier life, asking for money for more greener operations, and lobbying our governmental agencies to take a stand on global environment change, will all be in my future.

 

THE CHANGE:

If anything, I think the only change here was that I am even more inspired to be a part of the nonprofit sector. Luckily, I have landed a position in one and will be working to fight for women and girls everywhere at AAUW in Washington, DC.

 

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Explain the Importance of Reflection:

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While much of the course focused on global themes, every lesson came back to Friedman’s message of reflection and inputting this strategy into our educational systems. It’s not so much that we all need to sit down at the end of every day and think about all the minute breaths and steps we took. It’s the important fact that today, our global leaders think the best way to fix things is throw things out the window and start from scratch. The reality, however, is that this is not going to make things better. You can never fully erase measures and laws (the internet has proven that statement). What does work is reform and adjustments to the big picture. The current laws are part of our history and part of our today - so to get to tomorrow, we need to stop, breathe, put away the anger and figure out how to align our world, rebuild our economic backbone, and make things better (for everyone).

 

MY RESPONSE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR:

Reflection has become increasingly important today. As Friedman explains, there is a “mismatch between the change in the pace of change and our ability to develop new learning systems” (Friedman, pg. 28). While many believe the only way to overcome technological change is to either resist it or keep moving faster and faster – it is important that we take a moment to stop and figure out how to prepare ourselves for the inevitably growing future. Reflection is where this can occur. Without time to think, we cannot see our failures and our successes and see how to continue on to be better off than we were yesterday.

 

THE CHANGE:

As with my other changes, I think the most important one is opening up my view to the larger horizon. The world has a lot of issues and a lot of people out there that matter - today, more than ever, we need to develop our reflection capabilities and prepare ourselves for the advancing future, or else we may never catch up.

 

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So how can I apply all of these lessons to my future?

 

I’d like to list these out:

• Read the news and stay open

• Stay in the nonprofit world and effect change from outside

• Be active and utilize my voice in our democratic world

• Travel, travel, TRAVEL

• Experience the world beyond the boundaries and comfort of my home

• Step outside of my box and remember to always come back and reflect on what I experienced

• Never be afraid of change

 

In a world that is change at a pace that can barely be imaginable, we must find new ways to learn and adapt our current world. It’s time to take action, but only if those actions are informed and prepared to be utterly dismantled when presented to the opinionated public eye.

Thank you for a wonderful class and a semester full of reflection and time to learn through travel and new experiences.