The transformation of the international economy is staggering. And, although it has been anticipated that internationality would regress, that has not happened. Trade between all countries in 2022 reached a record of US$32 trillion. And the stock of foreign direct investment in the planet exceeded US$45 trillion. And, what is most relevant, the exchange of data, information and knowledge in the world reaches unprecedented numbers and cannot even be accurately measured due to its enormous intensity.
What happens is a profound qualitative modification of cross-border economic interrelations (which has four motors): it is a technological revolution that relies on intellectual capital for the advancement of the new internationality (more than half of the value generated in exchanges is based on intangibles), which is implemented through innovative global disruptive companies, which takes advantage of the proliferation of international agreements for the reciprocal opening of markets (70% of trade between countries occurs between those who reduced the border tariff to 0%) and that finds in trained people a crucial human component.
Argentina is today a weak international actor: it generates just over 0.3% of the total global cross-border trade and accredits only 0.2% of the foreign direct investment stock. Well, to overcome that weakness it will be necessary to develop new attributes.
holds the OECD that he 70% of all international exchanges occur within the so-called global value chains. But these change. And if up to now we have not achieved a relevant insertion in them, our participation in these networks would require virtues that have not yet been achieved. Effective international competition is no longer achieved by the mere manufacturing of goods at low cost: on the contrary, what is critical today is the creation of value through intangibles that sophisticatedly qualify the offer. In products and in companies.
Says Thomas Friedmann -in his book “Thank you for being late”- that the planet is driven by three great forces, which he identifies with three “M”: Moore’s law (frantic technological change), the reaction of “mother nature” (climate changes, but also social and cultural reforms, typical of a new human behavior) and markets (free and internationalized).
A recent work by KPMG finds novel characteristics in the transformation exhibited by international value chains: definition of the uniform technological component for the entire production process (international technological coupling) and no longer in separate stages, integration of “data-driven” decisions, homogenization of the workforce to order standards and a tendency to decentralize and focus (“micro supply chains”), qualifying the ethics of its participants and centering the entire process on the final consumer rather than on the intermediate steps.
Thinking prospectively of an Argentina better inserted in the planet supposes developing, then, a new strategy. And not just remove some current obstacles.
Today’s world is one of “know how” more than of machines, of intellectual capital more than money, of decisions based on the future more than on the present, of companies more than products, of digital geographies more than physical geographies , of complex proactive alliances between various economic actors more than defensive resilience, of creation of non-state public spaces more than of productive politicization, of innovation more than of efficiency, of the perishing of old categories and items and the appearance of new segments and thematic areas (“sands” says rita mcgrath) more than traditional productive sectors, and new openness and not old closure and therefore the need for flexibility and agility rather than managerial rigidity.
And to act in this scenario it is necessary to have (more than good products) qualified companies.
A while ago, Marc Suchman used the expression “legitimacy” to highlight the eligibility attributes of successful companies to act in link architectures based on reliability and guarantees. That value appears to be strengthening.
It is true that the world is experiencing a revolution, but not as a result of political events (as was the fall of the Berlin Wall, the conversion of China to capitalism or the generation of the European Union) but rather that it is now in the hands of companies that they create new realities, they invent, they allow the human being to go where they could not before, they disrupt and even occupy spaces not even foreseen by the institutions. No one goes faster or farther than them. Thus, we are witnessing a “micro revolution”. And this “new” globalization no longer has the exchange of physical goods as its main engine, but rather the rise in the value of intangibles. Leaning on what Sullivan and Edvinsson They call “intellectual capital”: knowledge organized as a factor of production.
For this reason, it could be said that external competitiveness requires, for these companies, today, at least seven attributes: 1. a successful strategy; 2. a comprehensive offer adapted to the new knowledge economy; 3. constant innovation; 4. the formation of networks of external alliances with associated investors, suppliers, financiers and innovators; 5. people prepared for leadership, production and business representation; 6. a guaranteed reputation; and 7. legitimacy and guarantees of compliance.
Something very difficult to achieve without internal ordering and reconfiguration of external relations. Thus, the pending task is not reduced to a mere macroeconomic adjustment, but also requires the (private) development of competitive actors.
# Marcelo Elizondo he is a specialist in international business; Chairman of the Argentine committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC); Director of the Master in Strategic-Technological Management (ITBA).
by Marcelo Elizondo
