From Global to Metanational: How Companies Win in the Knowledge Economy

Becoming a global company once meant penetrating markets around the world. But the demands of the knowledge economy are turning this strategy on its head. Today, the challenge is to innovate by learning from the world . This book provides a blueprint for companies ready to embrace this new globalization challenge. In From Global to Metanational, international business and strategy experts Yves Doz, Jose Santos, and Peter Williamson introduce a radically different kind of company—the metanational—defined by three core capabilities: being the first to identify and capture new knowledge emerging all over the world; mobilizing this globally scattered knowledge to out-innovate competitors; and, turning this innovation into value by producing, marketing, and delivering efficiently on a global scale. The authors explain why traditional global strategies are no longer sufficient to differentiate leading competitors, what the knowledge economy means for managers, and why opportunities to leverage globally dispersed knowledge are growing. Most important, they outline exactly how managers can build a metanational advantage for their own organizations by: prospecting for and accessing untapped pockets of technology and emerging consumer trends from around the world; leveraging knowledge imprisoned in a multinational's local subsidiaries; and, mobilizing this fragmented knowledge to generate innovations, profits, and shareholder value. Drawing from the experiences of pioneering metanationals including STMicroelectronics, ARM, Acer, Nokia, Shiseido, and PolyGram, the book shows how today's multinationals can use their existing global networks to gain an important head start in the global game—and how newcomers can leapfrog traditional competitors by rapidly building a new-style metanational corporation. Must-reading for every leader—from the CEO of a new global venture, to the executive of a currently successful multinational, to the founder of an e-business startup getting ready to 'go global'—this pathbreaking book shows how to reshape strategies to compete and win in the global knowledge economy.