跨國企業區域總部的策略角色演進—以思科亞太總部為例

Abstract

自美國總統川普時代以來，全球化已不再是唯一顯學，世界局勢從一體逐漸分裂朝向區域化。未來當區域經濟成形，區域總部的重要性將會提升。此時跨國企業的區域總部必須具備足夠的能力掌握所轄區域市場，才能保證跨國企業的全球競爭性，區域總部的能力將決定企業是否能維持競爭優勢。 透過此次研究案例，本研究發現區域總部可以透過學習、深化當地連結、在地化，建立自己的營運能力，有效掌握當地市場。更進一步，可以因此讓區域總部從跨國企業的邊緣地位走到核心影響地位，影響全球決策；從一個學習者蛻變成教導者的角色。 本研究此次先探討研究標的思科所在的網路通訊產業特性與產業趨勢，接著解析思科的組織與營運方式。運用Bartlett and Ghoshal(1989)針對跨國企業的海外子公司所劃分出的四種型態，探討思科亞太商業部門在不同階段，其市場重要性、組織影響力和角色演進方式。接著根據 STEP 模型，從 S(社會)、T(科技)、E(經濟)、P(政治)四大面向，解析2021年的亞太市場發展，並確定亞太市場疫情後的影響度。接著運用Hambrick and Fredrickson的策略鑽石分析，提出亞太策略建議，以確保亞太區域總部延續策略領導者角色，與其未來可能散發的策略影響力。

Since Donald Trump became the president of the United States, his series of policies open a new chapter of the world trade. Globalization seems to step down from the world stage. Regionalization is going to be the next successor. When a single global market breaks into several regional markets, such as EU, Asia-pacific and America, regional headquarters in multi-national companies (MNC) will play a critical role. Outstanding regional headquarters are the key to ensure the MNC’s competitiveness under the new market trend. This research is focused on analyzing Cisco Asia-pacific commercial team’s evolving path to find the successful metric behind the scene. It discovers three key successful factors to develop a competitive and influential regional organization: learning, strong local connection and localization. To avoid falling into “Black-hole”, regional headquarters can actively learn from in and out. The leaders in the regional headquarters can intentionally select and leverage the key useful initiatives from other regions or the global headquarter. Also, to drive influence in local markets, regional headquarters should build strong local connections and channels to capture the key happenings in the local markets. Moreover, all the regional strategies are required to be localized. Down to earth strategies would really drive the success of implementation.