Advances in Information Technology Have Affected the Global Strategies of Firms in Several Aspect

Advances in information technology have affected the global strategies of firms in several aspects.

Real-time management

With the developments in information technology, manager are operating their business in real time, which means they can acquire the in time information of the company. It requires the manager to adjust their business strategies to accommodate what is really happen in their business and the external environment. For example, Wal-Mart gets the information of their stores around the world in every two hours through telecommunication and adjusts their global strategies when necessary. K-Mart's falling behind just because of its late installing of the information feedback system and not managing their global business in time.

Online communication

With the technology of online communication, international managers of overseas ventures located in different countries are able to having the meeting through the internet so that they can share the information and ideas in time and consulting the global strategies for both the headquarters and the overseas ventures.

Electronic commerce

E-commerce provides another way for company to operate its business and it also has influenced the global strategies (such as creating a specific strategy if a company has decided to adopt doing e-commerce on the internet) comparing with the past when information technology has not well developed.

Faster product diffusion

Because of the developments of information technology, technology changes much faster than before and the product life cycle in global markets is much shorter. For example, the launching of the new design of personal computers with new technology require all the companies that selling computer to become up to date and their global strategies are obvious being influenced by the development of information.

Consequently, the developments in information technology have had a profound impact on organizations across the globe and the only way for companies to adapt to this new environment is to pay more attention to such developments.