By Debbie Bolla
As more and more organisations expand their footprints and establish a multinational presence, the idea of being “glocal” -conducting business according to both local and global considerations – has become commonplace. As you know, we go glocal with HRO Today Global, the sister publication to HRO Today, which covers similar pressing HR topics but with a focus on trends specific to EMEA and APAC.
When working on this month’s cover story, Going Glocal, it became clear early in my conversation with Dow’s Johanna Soderstrom that a global recognition programme was a top priority for her organisation. The CHRO and senior vice president oversees Dow’s more than 50,000 employees in 180 countries and knew that the backbone of the recognition programme could be the same but would need to be executed at the discretion of the region.
“An American programme doesn’t work in all corners of the world,” she says. “So we had to make sure that the programme works in different parts of the world.”
By implementing a global platform with the help of O.C. Tanner and allowing regional leaders customise their approach, Dow is experiencing a 11 percent increase of global participation.
“Glocalisation” also was a hot topic at MSI’s Executive Forum. During a session I attended, panelists Stephanie Nowicki of adidas and Ivana Gibson, Kate DeFrancisco, and Kim E. Raymond of MSI Global Talent Solutions talked about how leveraging assessments can be a major asset when aligning global teams.
Nowicki provided an example. When adidas was reviewing their mobility process, the organisation noticed that certain regions (Hong Kong, Germany, the U.S.) worked well as silos, but on a global level, they experienced challenges in communication and productivity. To help solve these problems, the teams went through an assessment process to dive deep into global readiness and cultural awareness.
“It was great to know these things about yourself, the team, and culture,” said Nowicki. “It helped us work together as a team, learn to listen to each other, and help move this along for our global harmonisation.”
So whilst glocal obviously sounds cool -it works too!
