In current times, firms in ICT (information and communication technology) may well opt for cost-reductions and streamlining, and some even report their first year-on-year revenue decline in history; yet, they are part of the winners of the crisis in the long run, foresees Dr Gabriele Suder, Professor of International Business at CERAM Business School, France, and consultant (suderconsulting.com).
What is the basis for her optimism? "ICT firms can help cut costs for other firms, anywhere. And they are being interestedly observed by international investors!" she reasons, answering questions over e-mails going back and forth, between Paris and Chennai.
Companies use the Internet and ICT tools to reach partners and markets across the world, explains Dr Suder in her recent book, International Business (Sage, March 2009). "Also, firms are increasingly exposed to the fast and pitiless comments and opinions that travel around the world on blogs, forms and other tools and on which people judge the performance, ethics and image of the companies."
"Main concerns focus on information theft or reluctant transfer, information disability, system destruction or infection, and spread more or faster through regular use of e-mail, Internet, WiFi, Bluetooth and USB keys."
The current tightening of some of those rules is a healthy and necessary development that will hinder those firms that are not responsibly engaging with the community and culture that they seek to do business in, and those that are likely to experience consolidation. A harmonised approach to international business rules will also stimulate further progress in responsible business on a global scale.
For developed-country firms, the main interest in emerging country investment has altered in very recent times, now stemming increasingly from the alignment of corporate goals with the emergent capabilities of China and India: Today, this goes beyond the role of China as the world's largest manufactory and India as the world's largest provider of offshore IT-enabled services. It reaches into emerging R&D and innovative capabilities that those firms explore.
The biggest investors approach emerging countries to meet multiple strategic goals that comprise market access, talent creation and recruitment, skills, different creative knowledge and similar advantages.
Source: The Hindu Business Line
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