Expert Available: Global Competition and the New Administration

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - December 3, 2008) - President-elect Barack Obama's election and administration are, and will be, precedent-setting in many ways. For one, his administration is the first to face huge challenges in the context of a highly globalized economy and deepening recession.

"Barack Obama will be the first U.S. President to encounter a significant economic downturn in the age of 'globality,' the new era of global competition in which a tidal wave of companies from rapidly developing economies (RDEs) is creating new business models and radically redefining the competitive landscape, on a grand scale," said Harold L. Sirkin, coauthor of "GLOBALITY: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything" (Business Plus, Summer 2008) and senior partner at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

"If the new administration is to effectively act on and pay for its top agenda items -- national security, the financial crisis, the environment, education, healthcare, taxes and Social Security -- the United States will have to compete better in the vastly changed global marketplace. One positive step is to learn from developing economies -- and some of their fast-growing companies," said James W. Hemerling, coauthor and senior BCG partner.

Mr. Sirkin and Mr. Hemerling are available to discuss the globality-era imperatives for U.S. competitiveness that they believe the Obama Administration will need to confront. For instance...

• Energy independence: Take an "all of the above" approach. President-elect Obama must avoid the trap of "either/or" choices and take five critical actions: commit to energy independence by 2025 (or another fixed date); reduce oil consumption by dramatically increasing the federal gasoline tax; expand investment in exploration and drilling for oil and gas; create alternative energy sources by supporting basic research and subsidizing companies through the tax code, and convert the United States from liquid fuels like oil to alternatives like electricity through massive investment in infrastructure, much as Israel is doing.



• Education: Expand the range of college options -- including a new system of vocational colleges. The idea that everyone must go to a traditional college is insular and wrong, Mr. Sirkin says. Instead, young people with vocational interests and skills should be encouraged to attend trade schools, as in Germany. Those schools could provide both a liberal arts basis and specific trade training. Spending smarter -- on both basic skills like math and technical training (maybe through a "vocational college" system) will create a proud, skilled workforce that can compete with the rest of the world.



• Infrastructure: Spend on it -- as an investment, not an expense. Infrastructure projects aren't just "make-work," and shouldn't be treated as such. Infrastructure is essential to support private industry -- and ours is decaying. The United States should follow the example of China, which understands that private companies need public works like roads, bridges and railroads to take in materials and move goods. It should avoid the trap of India, where an ingenious society is unable to reach its full potential because its infrastructure is "Third World."



• Productivity: Bolster it -- by getting unions and management to really work together. Productivity isn't just about widgets-per-hour. It's about ingenuity, innovation and fluid management that can put the right people in the right place at the right time. The "new" American automobile industry -- Honda, Toyota, Subaru, Hyundai and Volkswagen plants in the South -- show how it should be done. President-elect Obama needs to make productivity a White House priority and end the MAD (mutually assured destruction) relationship between unions and management -- so companies and workers have the flexibility they need to compete.

"Most of all, the president can provide leadership," Mr. Sirkin says. "In the era of globality, Americans need to work together as never before. If they don't, our economy will wither. If they do, we can not just compete but thrive in a changing world."

To arrange a conversation with Mr. Sirkin or Mr. Hemerling, authors of "GLOBALITY" and BCG senior partners, please contact Adria Greenberg at Sommerfield Communications, Inc. at adria@sommerfield.com or 212-255-8386.

Contact Information: Contact: Adria Greenberg Sommerfield Communications, Inc. 212-255-8386 adria@sommerfield.com