One of the best articles I have read in my 25 years here that impacts each and every company in our industry. Of note, when I joined here in January 1995, we had 350 dues-paying member companies, all of them Made in USA, the vast majority of them being cut/sew factories, and most of those were CMT contractors.
In January 1997, just two years later, we had 150 dues-paying members. In 2001, we opened our membership to the Americas. Today, we have nearly 200 organizations and individual members with a ratio of 2:1 of producers:services. Most of these member companies are 'global'. All of this makes the following article a true keeper and one you need urgently to reflect on the message of and think about internally.
GLOBALIZATION
The State of Globalization in 2019, and What It Means for Strategists
HBR: FEBRUARY 06, 2019
Globalization, since the Brexit and Trump shocks of 2016, has been shaped by a tug of war between economic fundamentals and policy threats. But predictions that globalization would collapse under a wave of economic nationalism have proven no more accurate than proclamations of a flat world that dominated the global business discourse a decade ago. The new DHL Global Connectedness Index (which we co-authored with Phillip Bastian) demonstrates that the world ended 2017 more globalized than ever before. While 2018 brought new obstacles — from tariff tiffs to blocked acquisitions — the result was a shifting playing field rather than an end to global business competition. How should executives think about building their businesses amid such turbulence? Since smart business decisions depend on accurate perceptions of the environment, executives should begin with a clear-eyed view of how globalization measures are trending.
In 2017, strong growth across most of the world propelled the DHL Global Connectedness Index to a record high. The proportions of trade, capital, information, and people flows crossing national borders all increased significantly. The last time that happened was 2007. Read More