May 2008
When motorists traveling in the eastern United States need gas, they have the usual household-name American, Dutch and British brands to choose from. But since 2000, they've also been able to stop at service stations bearing a far less familiar name: Lukoil, the giant Russian oil company, which has made a string of acquisitions in the region over the past seven years.
Welcome to the multi-polar world—and the new faces of globalization. Lukoil's presence in the US market, competing toe-to-toe with heretofore better-known Western oil majors, is one of the higher-profile examples (though by no means the biggest one) of the growing global clout of emerging-market multinational companies, which is, in turn, driving a fundamental shift in the balance of world economic power.
The global economy is no longer dominated by a few developed countries. In the new business environment, companies—regardless of domicile—are already competing globally for the same raw materials that fuel high performance: talent, consumers, natural resources, capital and innovation.
Much of Accenture's ongoing research occurs at the intersection of high-performance business and the multi-polar world, with its particular emphasis on identifying the critical strategic refinements and adjustments companies need to make to be high performers in a global marketplace characterized by multiple centers of economic power and business activity.
Two articles in this issue of Outlook look at the latest results of these intersecting streams of research. The first is a broad synthesis of Accenture's work on achieving high performance in a multi-polar world (See "Brave New World," Outlook, May 2008); the second is a more detailed analysis of emerging high-performance businesses in China, the world's most dynamic developing economy (See "China Rising," Outlook, May 2008).
We round out the issue with a number of solutions-oriented articles—on digital advertising, greening the IT function, creating a highly specialized workforce—that underscore the constantly changing realities faced by high-performance businesses. These articles are part of our continuing commitment to a vigorous research and publishing agenda that we hope will help readers successfully navigate the complexities of a multi-polar world.
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