CATEGORY

"Metanational" is the term that Jose Santos, Peter Williamson, and Yves L. Doz--management and technology professors at the international INSEAD graduate school of business--coined to describe a new type of global corporation. It refers, they explain in From Global to Metanational, to "a company that builds a new kind of competitive advantage by discovering, accessing, mobilizing, and leveraging knowledge from many locations around the world." And as they unveil and dissect the concept, it becomes apparent that it may indeed be an apt description for those worldwide enterprises most likely to succeed in our rapidly changing times. Based on interviews with 36 companies from America, Asia, and Europe (including long-established firms like 3M and Toyota and newcomers like Acer and Shiseido), the authors describe innovative ways to efficiently tap into "pockets of technology, market intelligence and ... specialist knowledge scattered around the world," rather than relying solely on input from a home nation or a few select locales. They explore how trailblazers are identifying this information wherever they find it, parlaying it into new products, services and processes, and merging the result with all sales, distribution, and marketing efforts. Anyone involved in multinational business should find this both provocative and potentially useful. --Howard Rothman