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Pankaj Ghemawat is an economist, strategist, speaker and author, and one of the world’s foremost experts on global business strategy.

Early life and career
Pankaj Ghemawat received his Bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics and his Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University. Entering Harvard College at the age of 16, he was accepted to Harvard Business School’s Ph.D. program at 19, graduating three years later.

After a stint at McKinsey & Company, he spent 25 years on the full-time faculty at Harvard Business School, where, in 1991, he was appointed the youngest full professor in the school’s history. Since 2006, Ghemawat has been the Anselmo Rubiralta Professor of Global Strategy at IESE Business School in Barcelona.

Research
Pankaj Ghemawat is actively involved in attempts to globalize management through formal leadership development activities. He and Jordan Siegel will publish a text-and-cases book on global strategy with Harvard Business School Press in 2010. Ghemawat is also a member of the task force on the Globalization of Management Education appointed by the AACSB, the U.S.-based accreditation body for business schools. And he is developing a cross-functional module on globalization for the first-year of the MBA program at IESE Business School. Ghemawat also works actively with companies to help them globalize their leadership development programs

Pankaj Ghemawat’s books include Commitment (Free Press, 1991), Games Businesses Play (MIT Press, 1998), Strategy and the Business Landscape (Pearson Prentice Hall, 3rd edition, 2009), the award-winning Redefining Global Strategy (Harvard Business School Press, 2007). It continues to receive international acclaim.

He is also the author of more than 100 research articles and case studies, and ranks as one of the world’s best-selling authors of teaching cases.

On the research side, Ghemawat also served as:

2009
 * Conference Keynote Speech at the Strategic Management Society on “The Future of Globalization” (October)
 * Conference Keynote Panel at the Academy of International Business on “Is the World Flat or Spiky?” (June)

2008
 * Irwin Award for the Educator of the Year from the Business Policy and Strategy Division of the Academy of Management
 * IESE-Fundación BBVA Economics for Management Prize
 * Elected fellow of the Strategic Management Society

2006-2007
 * McKinsey Award for best article published in Harvard Business Review
 * Elected fellow of the Academy of International Business

His “Regional Strategies for Global Leadership” received the McKinsey Award for the best article published in the Harvard Business Review in 2005. Other recent globalization-related publications include “Managing Differences: The Central Challenge in Global Strategy,” the lead article in the March 2007 issue of HBR, “Why the World Isn’t Flat” in the March/April 2007 issue of Foreign Policy, and “Global Integration ≠ Global Concentration” (with Fariborz Ghadar), the lead article in the August 2006 issue of Industrial and Corporate Change. He has also begun a blog on global strategy, “What in the World” for Harvard Business Online.

Opinions on Globalization
Prof. Ghemawat argues that the world today is not as “globalized” as many strategists believe, and that cross-border differences still matter in the world economy.

His view contrasts significantly with many other economists such as Thomas L. Friedman. In a 2007 Foreign Policy magazine article, Prof. Ghemawat argued that 90 percent of the world's phone calls, Web traffic, and investments are local, suggesting that Friedman grossly exaggerated the significance of the trends he described in The World is Flat: "Despite talk of a new, wired world where information, ideas, money, and people can move around the planet faster than ever before, just a fraction of what we consider globalization actually exists".

Prof. Ghemawat argues that in a world that is neither truly global nor truly local, companies must find ways to manage differences and similarities within and across regions. In his book, Redefining Global Strategies, he explains how firms can grow optimally through adaptation (adjusting to differences), aggregation (overcoming differences) and arbitrage (exploiting differences).

Redefining Global Strategy
Why do so many global strategies fail - despite companies' powerful brands and other border-crossing advantages? Seduced by market size, the illusion of a borderless, "flat" world, and the allure of similarities, firms launch one-size-fits-all strategies. But cross-border differences are larger than we often assume, explains Pankaj Ghemawat in Redefining Global Strategy. Most economic activity - including direct investment, tourism, and communication - happens locally, not internationally. In this "semiglobalized" world, one-size-fits-all strategies don't stand a chance. Companies must instead reckon with cross-border differences. Ghemawat shows you how - by providing tools for: assessing the cultural, administrative, geographic, and economic differences between countries at the industry level and deciding which ones merit attention. Tracking the implications of particular border-crossing moves for your company's ability to create value. Creating superior performance with strategies optimized for adaptation (adjusting to differences), aggregation (overcoming differences), and arbitrage (exploiting differences), and for compound objectives. In-depth examples reveal how companies such as Cemex, Toyota, Procter & Gamble, Tata Consultancy Services, IBM, and GE Healthcare have adroitly managed cross-border differences - as well as how other well-known companies have failed at this challenge. Crucial for any business competing across borders, this book will transform the way you approach global strategy.

"Pankaj Ghemawat has created an important strategic guidebook for leaders of the 21st century globally integrated enterprise. His analytic framework is both visionary and pragmatic – aware of the broader historic trajectories of globalization, but grounded in the real kinds of decisions business leaders have to make in the here and now. And his caveats about “semiglobalization” provide a salutary reminder that massive change of this kind doesn't happen overnight. By basing his analysis on real-world case studies and a mastery of economic data, Pankaj Ghemawat will help CEOs and leaders of institutions make smarter decisions on one of the most important challenges we all face." (Sam Palmisano, Chairman & CEO, IBM)

“Pankaj Ghemawat is one of those rare individuals who combines world class scholarship with a deep knowledge of business practice. Redefining Global Strategy tackles the crucial balance between local and global that will often define success in an increasingly globalized world economy.” (Michael E. Porter, C. Roland Christensen University Professor, Harvard Business School)