Christopher Bartlett on transnationals: An interview

Abstract

Since its publication in 1989 and following many reprintings in eight language editions, Christopher Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal's book, Managing Across Borders: the Transnational Solution, has made a big impact on managers' thinking on global strategy. The model and concept of the transnational organisation is now in common parlance in the corporate world. The research was widespread — 236 managers interviewed in a diverse group of companies in three distinctly different industries in Europe, the US and Japan. The results were startling and give me to clear prescriptions on how to develop companies' organisational capabilities to implement new competitive global strategies. These are quite different from the multinational, global, and traditional international companies' capabilities. They belong to a new and formidably successful genre of corporate organisation — the transnational. Although the transnational model implies a new strategic posture and a new organisational configuration, at its core is a new management mentality. This mentality is vital to achieving the multi-dimensionality and flexibility required to develop the three characteristics of successful transnational organisations — sensitivity and responsiveness to national market differences around the world, global scale efficiency, and a worldwide innovation and learning capability. In an interview at Harvard Business School with EMJ's Editor, Paul Stonham, Christopher Bartlett explains the growth of the transnational and its powerful potential for competitive supremacy in global strategy. There are many lessons for European companies — for instance, they should build on their strong administrative heritages and cultural diversity rather than denying, or undermining it in overseas operations; and they should invest aggressively in the training of their managers to be creative, entrepreneurial and visionary, rather than good command and control executives.