I have to say that I never expected our next headline from the land of D’oh! to come from Knowledge@Wharton, but I guess that this is just more proof that the unexpected can happen when you go global! But seriously, who didn’t know this? It’s 2010, and everyone knows that every country is different. Different cultures. Different political systems. Different goals. And no matter how much you think you know about another culture or country from reading a book or taking a course, there’s always going to be something you don’t know. After all, there’s lots about your own country you don’t know. For example, for those of you in the US, how many titles in the US code and which ones would impact you if you changed your product line?
And now that national security is becoming a prominent issue in many countries, it only stands to reason that the complexity of doing international business is only going to increase, and that the unexpected is going to become more common. This is especially true in information technology, as information can have political ramifications, and telecommunications, which transmit information, as these are both high-growth industries and there’s a lot of money at stake.
Furthermore, when companies offer products or services that can be used for, or to compromise, national security, there’s a chance there’s a good chance that it can put them in conflict with local governments. So what should they do? According to the article, these companies should put crisis management in place. Because a crisis is almost as inevitable as a supply chain disruption, and we all know that the black swan is coming.