The necessity of good advice.

• Position: Views of Ray J. Groves, Chairman of Ernst & Young - Special Section: Being a Global Leader

The Necessity Of Good Advice

Into the 1990s, globalization has taken on a new meaning. It's no longer just a matter of finding, as the dean of the Harvard Business School put it nearly a decade ago, the largest customer base in the most countries to sell the greatest number of an unmodified product. Today, it's geographical niche marketing that is making business run globally, as it defines and services a smaller, better targeted and, ultimately, more lucrative market.

Yet, companies pursuing this goal are finding that taking advantage of the unified European market - or the Eastern European, Soviet, Japanese, or Pacific Rim markets, for that matter - is more complex, time-consuming, and stressful than they expected. Despite the challenges, pursuit of success in these markets is going forward undeterred: U.S. companies, for example, have been seeking their niche in Europe in what has been called the biggest wave of investment since World War II. And as Europeans and Americans try to move into Japan, the Japanese, of course, are trying to solidify their position in Europe. But how do they go about doing it?

The answers to where, when, how, and how much in these kinds of situations used to come mostly from resources within the companies themselves, grown as the needs dictated. But today, internationally minded companies have such a broad range of choices before them that, working alone, it is unlikely that they could digest, compare, and analyze all the information set before them quickly enough to take advantage of opportunities before they slip away.

As the breadth of the expertise needed is increasing, and the size of players moving into the global arena has, in many cases, decreased, companies are finding that the outside advisers they used at home play an even more important role in achieving their international goals. Client needs have dictated that we, as a large professional services firm, deal on a global scale equal to their own. A firm that has a broad geographic outlook but narrowly focused specializations has become a necessity like never before, answering questions that companies never had to deal with before: * How do you deal with people who have never dealt with a profit-and-loss statement - as in many former East Bloc countries - because the concept of "profits" is totally foreign to them? * Do you "go" global on your own or by joining with rivals, suppliers, and customers to form strategic alliances that might result in a...