GLOBALIZATION AND BUSINESS SYNCHRONIZATION

Globalization is said to be the process of increasing the interaction, unification, and integration of the worlds economies, people, companies, and governments of different nation by reducing the barriers to international trade like tariffs, export fees, import quotas etc. this process is driven by the international trade and investment through information technology. This process aims to increase the material wealth, goods, and services through creating efficiency in the labor divisions by maintaining international relations, specialization and competition. This term is closely related to economic globalization where the trade, FDI, capital flow, migration, technology and military of national and international economies are integrated to achieve maximized effects (Bhagwati, 2004). Ahmed et al. (1993) explained that many studies measure these global activities on the base of country size and by the growth of the company. Recently there is advancement in the measurement methods that are based on econometrics and advanced computer technology. The growth of international trade over the past decades is said to be the product of globalization. The world trade has increased more than twenty seven folds since 1950s (WTO, 2007). This resulted in increased benefits to the consumers around the globe with respect to the selection of the products. The increased financial linkage with the countries around the globe has increased the degree of diversification in the products and services offered by the companies and the countries are able to cope with the idiosyncratic shocks. Thus there is profound correlation between the

level of risk sharing between the countries and the production specialization process ( KalemliOzcan et al. 2003)

The tremendous pace of globalization has significant impact on the countries around the globe and the people living there. It has transformed various businesses like Detroits Big THREE or Bangalore to IT hub from boom to bust or vice versa. It has played vital role in the increased prosperity of the world since 1950s which has now spread from United states and Europe to the regions like China and India, which were considered formerly as poor countries (BBC, 2007).

With the advent of globalization process, the world trade has increased much faster than the overall growth of the world economy since 1955. The globalization has helped to reduce the trade barriers like tariffs on the export of manufactured goods. The countries like Japan, Korea and China are having dramatic increases in their living standard due to international trade. Many MNCs are outsourcing their manufacturing units overseas to enjoy cheaper labor cost and stay in the competition. Recently, Apple, Multinational giant, has become virtual firm by outsourcing most of its production units to the companies in Asia (Schifferes, 2007).

The globalization has not only changed the way of manufacturing to various organizations but also it has revamped various service sector businesses. Many services related jobs are under the continuous threat and fear of outsourcing as the global companies tends to master costs by shifting their functions to the other countries. Bangalore has become one of the largest and fastest growing IT hubs outside United States (Nadvi, 1995; Parthasarathy, 2004).

India has become the worlds leading IT services provider, with its volume of offshore business doubling every three year. It is not only a hub for software-related industries but also houses several high-tech clusters (e.g. defence, aeronautics) and is considered to be the scientific and engineering centre of India in terms of research and training and partly manufacturing. What China has become to manufacturing, India has become to the new world of business process outsourcing (BPO) - which includes everything from payroll to billing to IT support (Nadvi, 1995; Parthasarathy, 2004).

Every process or function has positive and negative impacts associated with it. If the globalization has so many positive influences on the world economy and trade, it has some negative impacts on the social, cultural lives, and it has increased disparity within the people. There are many critics that are continuously expressing their views against globalization. But the point here is that globalization gathers pace and companies make new acquisitions and enter new markets and categories, the complexity of harmonizing information across borders can only increase. Although growth can sometimes be painful, there may never be a better time to think about a global information strategy. To find the right balance between benefits and costs associated with globalization, citizens of all nations need to understand how globalization works and the policy choices facing them and their societies.

REFERENCES Ahmed, S., B.W. Ickes, P. Wang, and B.S. Yoo (1993). International Business Cycles, American Economic Review, 83, 335-359. Bhagwati, J., (2004). In Defense of Globalization. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. Kalemli-Ozcan, S., B. Sorensen, and O. Yosha (2003). Risk Sharing and Industrial Specialization: Regional and International Evidence, American Economic Review, 93, 903-918. Nadvi, K,. (1995). Industrial clusters and networks: case studies of SME growth and innovation. UNIDO, Vienna. Parthasarathy, B., (2004). Indias Silicon Valley or Silicon Valleys India?: socially embedding the computer software industry in Bangalore. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research , 3, 664-685. Schifferes, S. (2007). Globalization Shakes the World, BBC NEWS, Retrieved on June 11, 2011 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6279679.stm World Trade Report. (2007). The GATT/WTO at 60: WTO World Trade Report examines six decades of multilateralism in trade, Retrieved on June 11, 2011 from http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres07_e/pr502_e.htm