Friday, July 6, 2012

What is Competitiveness and Where Does it Live?

Markus Christen, INSEAD Associate Professor of Marketing

"It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up it's a whole new game." Over the past few years European firms have kept their position in the Forbes rankings while US firms have dropped.



The US is well behind the top 15 European companies in the Google pages classification of "world market leaders." There is more to innovation than just new products and services and high-tech companies. Not having Google or Apple or Microsoft or Oracle doesn't make European un-innovative, Professor Christen told the INSEAD Global Business Leadership conference in Paris.

"There is still a lot of mass manufacturing done in Europe and there is still a lot they do with products made by these American companies. Rolls Royce no longer makes jet engines; it sells "power by the hour". You turn on the engine and the rest is handled by Rolls Royce. Air Liquide does the freezing - art of frozen foods; Syngenta sells planted rice fields to countries, not just seeds - it's solutions these companies are selling."

No comments:

Post a Comment