The IESE Global Alumni Reunion was an excellent opportunity to reflect on the challenges that as people and companies we must overcome in the face of the opportunities that globalization affords us.  The program, under the theme “Globalization & Diversity in the Corporate World,” revolved around three major axes: the international strategy of businesses, global economic relations, and the impact of cultural diversity on business values.

The key to exploiting the great opportunities that globalization presents us is precisely to take advantage of diversity, overcoming the apparent contradiction between the global and the local.  We must be aware that globalization means opening up to other cultures and being enriched by what they bring while at the same time maintaining our own roots. 

It is a challenge to which businesses must also respond, protecting themselves in the world while at the same time reinforcing the values that support the mission of each organization. Faced with strategic decisions about internalization, for example, businesses and their executives must consider the criteria of business, but not just that.  They must also take into account the social and cultural repercussions of international expansion.

In short, as people and companies we find ourselves faced with an exciting economic and managerial panorama which we should think over.

Jordi Gual
Academic Director of the 43rd IESE Global Alumni Reunion