During these times of uncertainty and rapid change, organisations around the globe, let alone South Africa, are feverishly in search of the Holy Grail of competitiveness as they traverse the uncharted white waters of hyper-turbulence. This Holy Grail is commonly summed up in a single expression; 'world-class'.

Over a series of 7 articles, Andre J Parker will be unpacking the 7 key characteristics of 'world-class' organisations from his doctoral research work.

Divided into 7 themes, he will be covering how, in these organisations

Management Today will be inviting organisations to benchmark themselves against these researched 'world-class' best practices for the duration of this series at http://survey.sbsc.co.za.

Whilst participating organisations will be given structured feedback by the research team, the data collected over 7-8 months will be combined to produce a lead article on South African business ratings against 'world-class' criteria and best practices.

To introduce the series, MT asked Andre to define the concepts 'world-class' and globalisation and to explain why becoming 'world-class' at the tip of the African Continent is no longer a choice for 21^st Century organisations but a necessity for survival.

MT: What does it mean to be a 'world-class' organisation?

AP: Becoming ‘world-class’ implies benchmarking one’s organisation and becoming competitive with other business organisations in the global arena. Put another way, it means being able to respond effectively to the prevailing challenges in a manner that surpasses that of competitors and to compete effectively in the global economy.

MT: The concepts 'world-class' and ‘globalisation’ tend to be used interchangeably. Do they have the same meaning?

AP: There is an assumption that being 'world-class' means having to be ‘global’ – meaning that you are in multiple countries around the world. This would imply that unless an organisation global, it cannot be 'world-class’. Nothing is further from the truth. However, whilst an organisation does not have to be globalised to be 'world-class, becoming ‘global’ certainly has the potential to improve a 'world-class’ organisation’s performance. SAB’s initial local pursuit of becoming 'world-class' and its later rapid global expansion is a good example. The challenge is to achieve a globally integrated business organisation that achieves economies of scale and responsiveness to global customers, while simultaneously retaining local flexibility for multiple customers throughout the world.

Consider Nissan Motor in Japan who, despite their earlier rise to greatness as a global player after World War II, became so uncompetitive towards 1999 with a crippling 24 Billion US$ debt that it faced total collapse. It took a transformational leader like Carlos Ghosn to refocus the organisation from its inward driven local Japanese way of thinking to re-ascend to 'world-class' and become globally competitive once again.

MT: We often hear the term ‘think global and act local’. Is that correct?

AP: Not really. "The slogan think global, act local, should read “think and act global and local.” This means that whilst being local but also ‘playing’ in a globalised competitive market, a 'world-class' organisation adopts a ‘global mind-set’. A ‘global ‘mind-set’ in this context means scanning the world from a broad perspective, always looking for unexpected trends and opportunities that may constitute a threat or an opportunity to achieve an organisation’s objectives

MT: Why then is it so important for business organisations who only play in the local economy to become 'world-class'?

AP: Regardless of whether a business is local or global, there is a growing pool of transnational sophisticated customers who see the ‘globe’ as one market place, having access to the best the world has to offer and who now seek globally standardised products – particularly in the field of popular consumer goods. So by default, whether an organisation is physically constrained to one country or not, it has to compete with some of the world’s brightest companies. Country boundaries no longer constrain market boundaries. Living in a boundaryless world where the pace of globalisation is accelerating exponentially, means that anyone, anywhere in any country can play on your turf and “scrum” you into the ground.

It therefore follows that being 'world-class' depends on whether you have a ‘global’ mindset and not where you are in the world or how many countries you are in.

This diagram brings it all together:

MT: “Are there any South African organisations who are 'world-class'?”

A handful like SABMiller and BHP Billiton and some motor manufacturers have broken the ribbon, whilst others have made admiral progress. But on the whole, initiatives are often disjointed, copied in ‘bits and pieces’ from developed economy examples which fail and then partially fail or limp along. Research on the applicability of 'world-class' criteria to the success measures of organisations in developed and developing countries will provide clarity and therefore certainty for organisations in developing countries to adopt such criteria to ascend to 'world-class'.

MT: “You talk about a ‘global mindset’. What exactly does that mean?”

AP: That is what the series is all about - starting with Part (I) how 'world-class' organisations strategise.