Yet despite these perceived threats, 90 percent of the 217 executives questioned viewed globalization as inevitable, indicating that trade protectionism or an economic downturn will not ultimately stop, or even slow, globalization ’s expansion. Seventy two percent agreed that it is likely to have a positive overall impact on their companies. Over a third also saw increased globalization as a challenge, but one that will be outweighed by opportunities such as the chance to expand into new markets, or to improve their company ’s brand exposure and sales.

The ‘EquaTerra Globalization Study ’, was conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of EquaTerra, a leading business advisory firm, and World 50, a knowledge-sharing community for C-level executives. It assessed in detail the perceptions of global competition and the challenges of expanding ones ’ global footprint, according to over 200 leading executives and senior managers from the Americas, Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific.

Regardless of the apparent overall optimism, 44 percent of respondents also made clear that finding and retaining high-quality talent is their number one concern over the next three years. This was true among study participants at all levels and across all geographic regions. Notably, executives based in North America were 12 percent more likely than their European counterparts to cite globalization as making it more difficult to find and retain local staff with required skills and experience, highlighting current issues within the tight North American labor market.

While finding and retaining talent is still a big issue for those in Western Europe, their two primary challenges resulting from globalization are funding expansion into new markets followed by growth of competition. Increased competition from global regions was a concern for over 36 percent of respondents, suggesting that the two main challenges executives are currently uneasy about as a result of increased globalization could have both a positive impact for organizations (access to lower cost high-quality talent), as well as a negative one (more competition).

“These study results give us a detailed and realistic gauge of how executives perceive globalization, and what decisions they are making in reaction to it. It is certainly clear that globalization is fast changing the dynamics of the world economy and this, in turn is driving a worldwide quest for talent across all business sectors ” said Mark Toon, CEO, EquaTerra.

In spite of these challenges, participants worldwide said they planned to use globalization initiatives to make business processes more efficient and effective (54 percent); invest in foreign markets (46 percent); accelerate their globalization plans (41 percent); redesign product and service development processes (40 percent) and locate and recruit local, qualified talent (35 percent).

A full copy of the study may be obtained by clicking on following link: http://www.equaterra.com/kr/research/ The-Benefits-and-Challenges-of-Globalization-all.aspx

Study methodology and demographics

This study, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of EquaTerra and World 50 in February 2008, polled 217 C-level and other senior executives from 19 industry groups worldwide about the benefits and challenges of globalization. Forty six percent of respondents came from North America, 39 percent from Western Europe, 5 percent from Asia-Pacific, and 10 percent from the rest of the world. Sixty two percent worked for organizations with annual revenue greater than $1 billion, and 19 percent for organizations with annual revenue below $500 million. Thirty five percent of respondents were Board members and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs); Chief Financial Officers (CFOs), Chief Technical Officers (CTOs) and other C-level executives made up an additional 28 per-cent. The remaining respondents were divided among a range of senior and middle management titles. All major industries were represented, led by financial services, high-tech and consumer packaged goods.