International business

Twelve lessons on analyzing data, communicating information, and protecting your employees.

The widely held notion of “Japan, Inc.” is exaggerated; there is no monolithic business-government link. Even so, the cooperation (without incorporation) between the large corporate combines and the government bureaucracy is impressive in its strength and focus on the common economic good—especially in view of its achievements worldwide. As the economic power of the United […]

The key is mutual learning, understanding, and teaching.

The federal government can and should play a much bigger role in helping American companies regain the lead in manufacturing. We need to invest a commensurate amount of federal R&D dollars in advanced manufacturing technologies as we do in other areas of science, technology, and engineering. The last administration created an assistant secretary for manufacturing […]

A country’s competitiveness, like a company’s, is not primarily a matter of sales: it is a matter of incomes, and incomes earned, not borrowed. To be competitive means to raise incomes as rapidly as competitors do and to make the investments necessary to keep up competitively in the future. From this perspective, U.S. competitiveness is […]

For the last decade, the Gallup Organization has surveyed the people of China, as both consumers of goods and employees of the companies that produce those goods. The data provide a unique picture of changing consumer attitudes, market opportunities, and management challenges.

On the anniversary of Lehman Brothers' fall, the question remains: What, if anything, has changed in the mentality of the financial community? While Wall...

A former U.S. treasury secretary reminds CEOs to focus on the long term.

There are plenty of reasons to be disappointed with the Copenhagen climate talks that start today: the meeting will not result in a binding agreement,...

Most American managers have a hard time making sense of Germany. It has a fraction of the resources and less than one-third the population of the United States. Labor costs are higher, paid vacations are at least three times as long, and strong unions are deeply involved at all levels of business, from the local […]

Entrepreneurs are turning Instagram into an e-commerce platform.

Because of growing commitments of their companies in developing countries, large numbers of American and European managers have entered negotiations with government officials in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Also, with emerging nationalism, these negotiations have become increasingly frustrating. Sometimes misunderstandings have been so great that they have led to a breakdown in negotiations that […]

The region is using fresh thinking to solve local problems — and world-class innovations may be the result.

It helps that the country’s domestic market is massive.

There’s a vast opportunity for the private sector in making cities efficient and competitive.

In fast-growing markets, women are getting ahead faster, too.

Three myths you need to know.

Understanding cultural differences helps us navigate them respectfully.

This blog post is written with Pepijn Veling, Utrecht University, Netherlands. There is a general consensus that U.S. healthcare needs major reform. Can...

Editors’ Note: This post marks the launch of a month-long forum on the huge trends that will shape the need for and delivery of health care throughout the world for decades. In recent weeks, we have talked with a wide variety of people: executives at major pharmaceutical companies and care providers, scientists and inventors, academics […]