The current World Baseball Classic surprised American fans after Korea’s unexpected 7-3 defeat yesterday of Team USA, a team loaded with celebrity “gazillionaire” athletes. Hee-Seop Choi’s three run homer kept Korea as the only undefeated team in the tournament. (Our colleague Dale Romero was trying to calculate the cost per run scored for the U.S., given the salaries of the players. Not a good ROI.) It’s another glimpse of how globalization is impacting our economy, and even our national pastime.
Simultaneously, I received the following from Dave Wooldridge:
Here’s a personal thought on "globalization" and working together with foreign companies to utilize their strengths. I think the competitive world of sports is one of the purest free-market "businesses" in the world.
Look at how many of the world’s "foreign" Olympic medal winners train in the USA. Yes, even the Russians. And many of the US Olympians are training overseas. Look at the World Baseball Classic going on now - and how many "stars" from each country play in the U.S. MLB (Major League Baseball). Golf has gone big time international also.
Major League Baseball owners recognized long ago that they are playing to win and offer their customers the best product - and if that involves signing and playing Albert Pujols (Dominican Republic) or Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez (Puerto Rico) or Ichiro Suzuki (Japan) or Fernando Valenzuela (Mexico), so be it.
And the National Basketball Association has recently gotten over the "foreign players aren’t as athletic as U.S. players" mentality, to recognize that maybe the foreign players often offer something else American players don’t have - passing skills, dribbling skills, defensive intensity, work ethic, willingness to drive to the hoop and get hammered. Different skills are developed overseas and those skills may be a great complement to building a winning team. Dirk Nowitzki (Germany), Tony Parker (France), Manu Ginobili (Argentina) - instead of competing with the competition, the NBA included them … and it’s making basketball a hot international commodity … thru globalization.
Going from a national pastime to an international sport is part globalization and part the shrewd moves of sports executives. It involved a change of mind regarding so-called “inferior foreign talent.” It involved a willingness to drop ethnocentric pride that always assumed that “we are the best.”
- Do you recognize the strengths and contributions of your international competitors?
- What can you do to create an all-star international cast of players?
- What are the opportunities to take your homegrown business and make it a world-business?
On a related note, ethnocentric pride has also been seen, unfortunately, in the world of faith. From a spiritual perspective, followers of Christ are now represented in nearly all nations and ethnic groups.
- As American followers of Christ, do we regard these international "brothers and sisters” as spiritual equals?
- Do we understand and appreciate their gifts and abilities?
- Are we willing to listen to their insights, receive feedback, and learn from them?
- How might such feedback help our businesses become more biblical and less American?
