How Global is Your Organization?

December 12, 2007

Here’s a useful way to assess the global strengths and weaknesses of your organization. First, print out this page.  Then, for each of the following statements, assign a score of "1", "2", or "3" according to how well they describe your company: 1 if a statement is false, 2 if it’s somewhat correct, or 3 if it’s true.

  1. In order to create an overall corporate “glue,” our organization devotes a large share of its resources to global executive development
  2. Global experience (actually living and working overseas) is considered essential to a successful career in our organization
  3. A considerable number of our employees live outside the home country
  4. A sizable percentage of our investments lie outside the home country
  5. The power of our subsidiaries is considerable
  6. Non-home-country executives are well represented on the board
  7. Our language of business is predominantly English
  8. The members of the executive board have extensive overseas experience
  9. The organization is very experienced at handling expatriation/repatriation issues and offers executives considerable help with transitions
  10. We invest in preparing our executives for foreign assignments
  11. In considering people for assignments in countries other than their own, we look at many factors other than technical/functional expertise
  12. We lose very few of our executives due to unsuccessful foreign assignments
  13. Our organization doesn’t favor home-country nationals for fast-track careers

The higher your score, the more your organization tends to be global. Please feel free to share your scores and questions with International Innovations.

Specific scores are privileged information. However, if you find your score below 25, it is reason for concern if your organization is global. In the case where you’re planning on going global, these areas are paramount in the process.

For more information, see our other articles about organizational development.

Posted by Raymond McConnell | Filed Under Organization 

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