The demands of leadership are changing how leaders manage in the global village. U.S. concepts are no longer held up as the dominant models, especially because managing is different in countries with government ownership of corporations (SOEs). One thing internationals and MNCs have in common is thinking and integrating globally, but they adapt to local market needs in specific countries.

Leading MNCs have top-level managers who are foreign nationals and subsidiaries managed by foreign nationals. Small businesses often can’t afford to hire foreign managers, but some use consultants and agents. In an MNC, there is one strategy for the entire company, not one per subsidiary. Worldwide coordination attains economies of scale but still allows a country manager to respond to local consumer needs and counter local competition. MNCs have standardized operations worldwide to attain economies of scale, and they make products to be sold worldwide, not just in local markets.

Technology is developed internally through large research-and-development (R&D) budgets, and they acquire small companies that develop the tech. MNCs search world markets to get the best rates and terms when borrowing and managing money. Products used to be developed in the home market and then brought to other countries later, which small companies still do, but the trend is toward global introduction of products. MNCs tend to have much larger marketing budgets to promote their products globally.