BT CEO: Globalization Is More Opportunity Than Threat
date: January 23, 2007
SOURCE:Telecommunications Magazine
Verwaayen Urges Business Leaders To Embrace Disruptive Change
Speaking at the Detroit Economic Club here today, BT Group Chief Executive Officer Ben Verwaayen countered the commonly held view that globalization is a dire threat to established companies and industrialized nations. He encouraged the audience of business leaders to embrace the disruptive change that's sweeping away established economic models.
Ben Verwaayen has been CEO of BT Group since February 2002. During his tenure as CEO, the company has established its position as one of the few truly global communications solutions and services providers. BT now employs 100,000 people -- 30,000 in BT's Global Services business, covering 53 countries worldwide.
"Are we at a point of crisis? Perhaps. And a crisis is too great a gift to waste," Verwaayen remarked. "Modern technology has extended opportunities to millions of people who have been excluded from the process of wealth creation. And for the first time ever, technology enables companies to recruit the brightest and the best from a truly global workforce."
With the proliferation of global networks and reliable broadband access, businesses are more able than ever before in history to operate globally. And with this capability comes opportunities for greater productivity.
"The modern business leader is now able to locate any part of his or her operation in whichever part of the globe offers the greatest advantage. This has hugely increased the world's capacity to grow and to innovate,"Verwaayen said. "Business processes can be split among locations, while staying whole in their operation. This is a profound change which is completely upending traditional models," he added. And to support business processes that are distributed globally, businesses can tap into a truly global talent pool. Linked together through broadband networks, employees can collaborate across time and distance, creating greater economic efficiencies than were previously possible. True economic globalization means the marketplace will grow. "The pie will get larger -- but that doesn't mean we can automatically count on our share of it," Verwaayen warned. "What we cannot do is be patient. I am not aware of an economic translation of patience. The urgency is now."
Verwaayen described a new economic model, a triangle formed by knowledge, entrepreneurial skills and competitive business models, held together by broadband networks. "Only if all those elements are present in a local economy does the model work," he said. Verwaayen pointed to rapidly growing economies such as those of India and China as examples of this new model at work.
Based on BT's global experience, Verwaayen stressed the need for global enterprises to localize their approach to markets. "What works in Detroit may not work in Dubai; each market requires a customized approach. While this is the case in all markets, it is particularly true in emerging markets," Verwaayen said.
For developed nations with mature economies to remain competitive in the future, it is essential that they continue investing in education and stimulate entrepreneurial behavior and competitive business models through enlightened public policy, Verwaayen said.
BT has operated in the U.S. since 1988, and has grown rapidly in size and reach in North America. Today BT operates an advanced network that reaches all major cities in the U.S. and Canada. And last year, BT revenues in the U.S. rose more than 50 percent.