I believe there are several stages for a company to be "global"

First Phase:
1. Have domestic location and decide to open an office in another country
2. Sell a product and decide to outsource a piece of business functionality
3. Have global talent pool
4. Work with international distributers and joint ventures
5. Utilize an international web presence to be found globally

Second Phase:
1. Integrated cross border teams
2. Products coming from both directions - domestic and international
3. Documentation is translated and localized
4. Own significant portion of international marketshare for your product or service.

Third Phase:
1. Have a decentralized company with locations all around the world - working at
the optimum level for their market
2. Have clear global communication channels to accomodate all markets
3. Completely understanding new markets and driving sales from that perspective
not from a domestic perspective and tweaking for global market.
4. Global teams working synergistically - capitalizing on each markets strengths.
5. Company so integrated with global markets it would be almost impossible to
disentangle.

www.linkedin.com/answers/.../INT.../461442-44333736

Essential Characteristics of Good Global

Business Leaders

Leading Global Business

A global multicultural organization is dynamic and complex.

This means that multicultural organizations are very
transformative and ever changing. Organization principles
and rules that worked yesterday may not work today in a
global multicultural organization due to the ever changing
demographic and needs of the workforce. The
characteristics and practices necessary for global leaders to
successfully manage within the global virtual team
environment are knowledge, vision, understanding, good
listener, ethically sensitive, and the ability and willingness to
say I don’t know. A bad leader in the global virtual team is
the one who always portrays to their subordinates that they
know it all. A bad leader in the global virtual and
multicultural team is the one who is insensitive to the
cultures of their workforce. Bad leaders almost always make
unethical business decisions. Bad leaders are those that
make strategic decisions without examining the impact of the
decision on their multicultural workforce. This paper will
examine and contrast the essential characteristics of good
and bad global business leaders as well as evaluate the
characteristics and practices that may assist multinational
organizations retain their workforce and boost their morale
and team spirit.
Comparing and Contrasting Leadership Characteristics in the Global Virtual Workforce
Effective and efficient future global virtual and multicultural leaders are those who are
open minded, ready and willing to say I don’t know when situations become complex; and
demand additional information and evaluation in order to make sound business decision. Today
and future global virtual and multicultural leaders are those who are culturally aware of the
difficulties and challenges that surround their multicultural and virtual workforce. They are
ready to learn and be educated by their workforce. Global leaders in virtual and multicultural
organizations are responsible for building organizations were individuals continually expand
their capabilities to shape their future through learning – that is leaders are responsible for
fostering learning and are themselves learners. (Senge, 1990 as cited in Knutson & Mirando,
2000 p.209).
On the other hand, bad global virtual leaders are those who are less empowering to their
workforce, less motivating to their workforce, arrogant, sloppy interpersonal skills, no sense of
humor, and more importantly, culturally incompetent and has no patience to listen and empathize
with their workforce. “In a global virtual organizations, the roles of leaders have been
conceptualized as that as designers, teachers, learners, and stewards.” (Knutson & Mirando, 2000
p.209). Currently, bad global business leaders are those who don’t feel that they are property
managers, they don’t feel accountable to anybody; they make unethical decisions that tarnish the
image and the bottom line of organizations. Current bad global business leaders are selfish,
greedy, and incapable of training future leaders. They don’t live exemplary lives and more
importantly don’t care about the consequences of their unethical behaviors on their families and
loved ones. The aforementioned are a concise comparison and contrast of the characteristics and
practices essential to leading global and multicultural organizations currently, and in the future.
How Effective Leadership Characteristics and Practices Assist Organizations in Maintaining
their Environmental Edge and Team Spirit
“Communication is key to keeping teams together and on track.” (Smith & Mraz, 2001
p.70). As management of a global virtual and multicultural organization, it’s difficult to maintain
organizational edge regarding current global and multicultural environmental trends without
good communication across the organization. Employees must be kept informed about global
environmental trends that impact their professions and the organization as a whole. They must
be kept informed about trends in management, policies, regulations, chain of command, roles
and responsibilities and what have you. There will be confusion, misunderstanding, productivity
problems and quality if there is no effective communication across organizational chain.
Another way by which leadership characteristics and practices can assist organizations in
maintaining their edge regarding current global and multicultural environmental trends is by
ensuring that leaders are social responsible. Global leaders must re-examine their production and
manufacturing practices and policies to ensure that those practices and policies are
environmentally friendly. “The total corporate social responsibility of business entails the
simultaneous fulfillment of the firm’s economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic
responsibilities. The CSR firm should strive to make a profit, obey the law, be ethical, and be a
good corporate citizen.” (Carroll 1991, p.8).
In order to maintain organizational environmental edge and to successfully create and
sustain teamwork, conflict management, ethics, organizational cultures and diversity; global
business leaders must create a healthy work environment for all; free from stereotypes and
prejudice. Stereotypical work environmental and intolerance to the cultures of others may breed
conflicts, misunderstanding, unhealthy work environment and decreased productivity. May also
lead to absenteeism, and high organizational turnovers. Global leaders must make ethical
decisions in the presence of their workforce; institute effective and efficient conflict management
department or alternative dispute resolution division in order to deal and handle any
organizational disputes or conflicts that arise in their organizations.
Conclusion
Certain leadership characteristics and practices are unacceptable in today’s global
business environment. For instance, unethical business decision may end up forcing an
organization out of business; unethical business decision may lead to prosecution as seen today
in the global business environment. Good leaders must live exemplary lives worthy of
emulation, must be flexible, must be good listeners, ready to teach and learn and more
importantly must be culturally sensitive and competent to manage their multicultural workforce.
It doesn’t pay to be viewed as a socially irresponsible organization; it doesn’t pay to be viewed
as an unethical global organization. Good global leaders must demonstrate good conscience,
commitment to organizational mission and vision, and most importantly create a work
environment to empower future global business leaders through cultural competency and
sensitivity.
References
Carroll, A.B. (1991). The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral
management of organizational stakeholders. Business Horizons, 1-20
Knutson, K.A., and Mirando, A.O. (2000). Leadership characteristics, social interest, and
learning
organizations. Journal of Individual Psychology, 56(2), 205-21
Smith, P.G., and Mraz, S. (2001). Communication holds global teams together
Machine Design, 73(14), 70-74