Critical Analysis Of Levitt's 'The Globalization Of Markets'

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In his article on ‘The Globalization of Markets’, Levitt argued that there has been a shift of market preferences, and that customers now prefer a low-cost approach regardless of their wants. He also stated that in this modern era, companies should avoid multiple customization markets, which leads to higher production and manufacturing costs and instead, should focus on standardization of products, demand and markets. Levitt brought up the example of a Hedgehog and a Fox- the global company and the multinational company. He encouraged businesses to be like the hedgehog because ‘the hedgehog knows everything about one great thing’. This can be witnessed in how global companies operate by treating their market as a single entity and by doing …show more content…

It is extremely important for a company to first evaluate its internal strengths and weaknesses, external opportunities and threats of its business before considering the possibility of globalizing. Globalization is a complex compound that ties to several far-reaching implications, which if not identified or considered during the planning phase, could result in detrimental consequences. The definition, according to Levin Institute (2015) states that ‘Globalization is a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology.’ and ‘has effects on environment, culture, political systems, economic development and on human physical well-being in societies around the world’. This brings the topic back to environmental analysis- PESTLE analysis, which encompasses the political, environmental, socio-cultural, Technology, legal and economical aspects of the business (Gupta, A. 2013). Those aspects that define globalization could also end up being the consequences of globalization. For example, the cultural or religious beliefs of a country may not support the idea of globalization. Take the case of the pork burger offered by McDonald’s Japan, it is impossible to globalize the same menu items across the world due to Muslims’ beliefs. Another example would be what Levitt had brought up on the case of Japan exporting left-side drive cars to the United …show more content…

The first point talks about how phasing out of narrowly established firms and industries could potentially mess up the pre-existing variety of businesses and thus affect the ‘interwoven fabric of private initiative throughout entire geographic regions’. Even though there could be benefits in encouraging the expansion of certain industrial firms due to national or global economic factors, it could also kill other historically significant firms by accident. This is an example of a far-reaching implication mentioned in the earlier paragraph. The latter potential problem covers the varieties of offerings to consumer base. Imagine in a world where the entire population is dominated by that few brands or products lines, how will the human’s lifestyle and habitual change? Humans will lead a monotonous life under a controlled environment, chances of a new trait operating in the market will be tougher and there will be stagnation in innovation due to the limited offers in the market. In reality, competition is benefiting the human population because companies compete to offer the best available product at a value-for-money cost. Without competition, there will be no additional or better benefits

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