What is glocalization?

The pairing of glocalization and business originated in Japan during the 1980s. In this incarnation, glocalization pertained to the idea of adapting a global product to fit a local market. By 2000, the term had become a buzzword in big business, with countless companies looking for ways to glocalize everything from hamburgers to Web sites.

After all, if you have a product with international potential, what would be the best way to convince local consumers to buy it? Would you introduce it as is or adapt it to meet the consumers' tastes and needs? Supporters often summarize the philosophy with the slogan, "Think locally, act globally."

McDonald's Corporation is one of the best users of glocalization. Each of its restaurants, in more than 100 countries, offers McDonald's branding, but the actual menus vary to meet the local culinary tastes and dietary requirements. McDonald's restaurants in India offer mostly chicken, lamb and vegetarian dishes since many Hindus don't eat beef. Walk into an Israeli McDonald's and you can order a kosher Big Mac (minus the cheese).

Various global television networks adapt their programming to better suit particular markets. In 2006, Cartoon Network introduced an anime version of its U.S. animated series "The Powerpuff Girls" called "Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z" to air on Cartoon Network Japan. MTV Networks boasts channels in more than 20 countries. The network glocalizes each channel to deliver a popular mix of regional and international artists.

Glocalization often involves a certain degree of trial and error as companies test the strengths of their products on local consumers throughout the world. For instance, when Wal-Mart opened stores in Germany, one of the store's signature practices had an adverse effect on customers. The use of greeters discouraged many German shoppers who were unaccustomed to such obliging customer service.

Glocalization applies to far more than fast food and prime-time programming. Next, let's look at how glocalization is changing the structure of global power.

If you look at glocalization as a dialogue between the global and local sectors, you get a good understanding of its challenges and potential benefits. With glocalization, a global corporation's goal isn't to say, "Here's a sandwich." Rather, the corporation asks, "How can we make a sandwich you'd like?" When glocalization and culture connect, local communities play crucial roles in developing and sustaining global policies.

The marketing, funding and infrastructure behind a product may come from a global corporation, but the local level dictates what finished form that product will take. In this way, glocalization is a bottom-up system of governance for globalization.

Take the economic model of glocalization and apply it to larger cultural and political issues and you have an entirely new way of looking at the world. National governments cease to be the major decision makers and become important players alongside cities, local leadership groups, private companies and international organizations.

If you view the world as a collection of nations, you see varying levels of stability and social equality, depending on what country or region you're looking at. View the world as a whole and things look a lot grimmer. Parts of the Western world benefit from the latest technology, while disease, famine, war and starvation plague portions of the Southern Hemisphere. Some cities have grown into centers of knowledge and culture, while others swell with cheap manufacturing labor.

Just as fair trade coffee eliminates most of the middlemen between producer and consumer, glocalization eliminates many of the various governments and organizations that stand between global resources and local communities. This gives cities and local authorities an increased global role, blurring the division between geography and politics.

Organizations such as the Glocal Forum and the Think Tank on Glocalization push for the creation of a more stabilized world though a series of glocalized strategies:

The intended result of all these strategies is the same: Develop a world where local areas benefit from global resources while retaining their own cultural identities.

Follow the links on the next page to learn more about glocalization.