Many people use “international” and “global” as interchangeable terms, but Thunderbird Professor Denis Leclerc, Ph.D., makes an important distinction. “Most international organizations have a center of gravity at corporate headquarters,” says Leclerc, who teaches in the Executive Certificate in Global Negotiations program through Thunderbird Online. “They might sell products around the world, but they truly have a center of gravity.” Global organizations, which have multiplied in the past 10 to 15 years, embed themselves more deeply in the markets where they operate and share knowledge in multiple directions. “Rather than having one center of gravity, they have nodes of knowledge around the world,” Leclerc says. Leclerc says cross-cultural communication skills become increasingly important as companies make the transition from international to global. | Audio: International Versus Global (9:27)
