ABSTRACT
Twenty years ago, most multinational companies were organized by geography. Times have changed and today, most global enterprises are organized within a matrix structure where the control, role and influence of the individual countries tend to be balanced by other forces. Now, the driving forces are usually either the distribution channels or the business product units; selling being the prime corporate value in the first case, and innovating being the top cultural belief in the second. Furthermore, large companies are optimizing their costs by locating their activities where they will find the best financial and technical conditions. It is not unusual to find some product parts produced and assembled in China, software design implemented in India, basic administrative work carried out in Africa, call centers organized in Belarus, and so on. Consequently, executive teams with a dominant nationality are seen less and less frequently, and most are now likely to have three or more cultures represented.
