Multi-national corporations might be visualising a "flat world" sans boundaries, but socio-cultural and geopolitical risks could spoil their expansion plans, technology research firm Forrester has said in a study.Incidentally, it was a visit to India and talks with IT major Infosys' CEO Nandan Nilekani that influenced Thomas Friedman, the Pulitzer award-winning columnist of The New York Times, to write the best-seller "The World is Flat". This was followed by a number of MNCs adopting the 'flat-world' vision, even Infosys which now calls its business perspective "Think Flat." However, this vision has failed to heed the growing geopolitical and socio-cultural risks that have begun to roll back the Fortune 500 companies' global expansion efforts, Navi Radjou, vice president of Forrester, says in the report.With exponential global trade growth in recent decades, the world appears increasingly smaller and flatter, while promising massive new market opportunities for the companies, Forrester said.Worldwide exports have tripled from $3.45 trillion in 1990 to $9.12 trillion in 2004, as developing nations like India and China integrated into global economy.However, the direction and pace of globalisation is not decided by market forces alone and geopolitical as well as socio-cultural concerns might spoil the party, it said.To make things worse for MNCs, socio-cultural and environmental factors are exerting an increasingly negative influence. Weak social and physical infrastructure, along with poor education and health systems, are curbing MNCs' expansion efforts in BRIC countries, the report said.
