Global Business Value Nuances

Linda Sharkey’s adaptive leadership keynote emphasizes the importance of leadership that can adjust in response to international business nuances. She underlines this point by saying that one of the biggest business needs for large companies is finding adaptive leaders who have the ability to do business all over the world.

Sharkey’s adaptive leadership keynote continues with a few “faux pas” in the form of Twitter and Google. She gives these examples as companies who made errors in global business practices due to rigid thinking. Sharkey goes on to say they tried to assert their value of the free exchange of information in countries where that value was not shared and the results were poor.

Sharkey quickly pivots to give a positive example of McDonald's, who she classifies as one of the best global companies. What McDonald's did in response to cultural differences was adjust its restaurants to fit international norms, while doing so in a way that kept their supply chain in tact.