You have to think globally in everything you do,” says Sandy Sandquist, director of Global Security for General Mills. There’s no question that success in Sandquist’s position requires a global mindset: General Mills is one of the largest food companies in the world. It sells product in more than 100 countries and maintains offices and manufacturing facilities in more than 30. About half of General Mills’ 33,000 employees work outside the United States.
However, one needn’t have “Global Security” in his or her title to recognize the impact of the global economy on business in general, and on how businesses must manage risk. The importance of geographic barriers has dwindled in the face of the abundance of technologies and devices offering instant communication anywhere at any time. Major incidents in a single country – even in a single locality – create financial ripples for businesses on far-off shores as world stock markets react to one another minute by minute. When manufacturing components are sourced internationally, the potential for worldwide impact is considerable; at this writing, shortly after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the global manufacturing supply chain is being strained by the destruction or shutdown of factories that supply one-fifth of the world’s semiconductors, according to a Reuters report.