Given the difficulty of maintaining a delicate
balance between central control and local responsiveness,
most firms find it difficult to implement
transnational strategy. In the long run, almost all
firms find that they need to include some elements
of localized decision making as well,
because each country has its idiosyncratic characteristics.
For instance, few people in Japan want
to buy a computer that has an English-language
keyboard. Thus, while Dell can apply a mostly
global strategy to Japan, it must incorporate some
multidomestic elements as well. Even Coca-Cola,