Research

The Quest for Global Dominance: Transforming Global Presence into Global Competitive Advantage

Contact

Tel: 603-289-0007
vg@dartmouth.edu

VG personally handles all inquiries. The best way to reach him is his email address. Only as a backup, use VG’s cell phone: 603-289-0007.

Books

The Quest for Global Dominance: Transforming Global Presence into Global Competitive Advantage
(2nd Edition) Jossey-Bass, 2008 (with Anil K. Gupta).

Professor Govindarajan's latest book, The Quest for Global Dominance: Transforming Global Presence into Global Competitive Advantage, is coauthored with Professor Anil K. Gupta of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.

After studying more than 100 corporations through a variety of research methods, The Quest for Global Dominance argues that in the emerging era, every industry must be considered a global industry, and every business a knowledge business. The decline of isolated, government-dominated economies, combined with the digital revolution, is making globalization the single most important issue facing general managers. As worldwide presence becomes a requirement, not a choice, every executive must face the essential question: Is my company a leader or a laggard in engineering and exploiting the ongoing globalization of my industry?

"At one extreme, if every country is different and the world is fragmented, the unit of analysis is a single country, and global strategy is uninteresting," explains Govindarajan. "We know that is not the case. But if the world truly is a global village, totally integrated, [and] borders are open and barriers are zero, we also need no new concepts and strategies, just as in the U.S. we don't have a Maine strategy or a Vermont strategy." In fact, Govindarajan says, the world is "some curious combination" of these extremes, making global strategy very interesting and challenging indeed.

The Quest for Global Dominance focuses on four key tasks:

The authors, Vijay Govindarajan and Anil K. Gupta, have done a wonderful job of not just identifying the strategic challenges of going global and but also in providing concrete solutions to accompanying issues like creating the right organization for globalization and the requirements for effective knowledge management.

–Capital Ideas Online

A must-read for anybody charged with leading the globalization of his or her company.

–Robert W. Galvin, chairman of the executive committee of the board, Motorola

Not only present incisive and in-depth analysis but also inspires real-world, implementable solutions.

–N.R. Narayana Murthy, chairman and CEO, Infosys Technologies

Superb and freshly documented.

–John E. Pepper, chairman, Procter & Gamble