Dragon Multinational: A New Model for Global Growth

Although a typical view of globalization is that megafirms such as IBM from the power triumvirate of North America, Europe, and Japan will soon rule the earth, John A. Mathews believes otherwise. Little firms—"newcomers, latecomers, and outsiders"—are increasingly a powerful force in the globalization game, he writes. As a professor of management at Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Sydney, Australia, Mathews makes the case that smaller firms such as Asia's Acer, Li and Fung, the Hong Leong hotel group, and Mexico's Cemex are developing nimble strategies and finessing the difficulties of their environments in a way that provides a competitive model for all players. "Acer is just one of hundreds of companies that are flourishing in the new conditions of the global economy," he writes. "No one asked Acer or any of these other firms to join the party."