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Leaders of global enterprises are increasingly concerned about the effects of international expansion on their corporate culture. Accenture research reveals that companies that nurture a set of enterprise-wide mindsets can maintain a unity of purpose while at the same time successfully adapting practices to diverse local economic and cultural conditions.
As they seek to build global enterprises, top managers are increasingly concerned with the problem of maintaining a common corporate culture and identity. In fact, a recent Accenture survey of more than 900 senior executives on the challenges of building a global organization revealed that this was the greatest concern of nearly half of all respondents. But those executives also recognized the need for diversity and flexibility: The second-most selected concern - chosen by 44 percent of respondents - was the ability to understand local customs and ways of doing business[1] . How can a company resolve these dual concerns: one, maintaining a common identity, a unity of purpose, and a consistent way of doing business and two, also allowing for the flexibility needed to succeed in vastly different markets?
This question takes on greater importance given the increasing pressure on companies to maintain a global presence in what is becoming a world in which economic development and demography are rapidly changing the nature of competition. An estimated 97 percent of the 438 million people expected to join the global workforce by 2050 will hail from developing countries, and new versions of Silicon Valleys are cropping up around the world - from South Korea to India to Poland. In addition, emerging economies will become a major source of new customers; evidence suggests that they will account for more than half of global consumption by 2025[2] . Given these trends, companies will increasingly need to operate in different cultures and regions to survive while at the same time they strive to differentiate themselves - in large part, by maintaining their unique identities on the global stage.
Consider, for example, Marriott International, which operates 18 hotel brands from the Ritz Carlton, aimed at the luxury traveler, to the residential Fairfield Inn brand, aimed at the business and budget traveler. While many of these brands already have an international presence - the company manages hotels in more than...