The rapid integration of the global economy and the blurring of economic geographies fueled by the formation of large and powerful trade blocs, the rapid economic growth of the emerging BRIC economies coupled with the perils of an integrated but not judiciously regulated global financial markets are posing a set of very different challenges to new millennium managers. Global Business Environment is today a multidimensional phenomenon. Multidimensional, in today’s context would mean that the understanding of only a few variables is not enough to capture the complexity of the Global Business Environment. The added environmental complexity of operating across geographies is not only a major source of uncertainties, but also a distinguishing factor from generic studies of management of large scale enterprises.

By using only one environment dimension in general management studies, we obtain only a fragmented view of the complexity associated to managing foreign operations, evaluating international strategies, location, entry mode, entry timing, management of foreign subsidiaries, and so forth. Each of the Trans-nationals’ decisions, whether concerning their capabilities, strategies or structural forms, is dependent on many environmental dimensions simultaneously. While, in some cases it is possible that one of these dimensions predominates, this is not generally the case.

There are several dependent factors to successfully operate in a global business environment. For instance ‘Culture’ which is defined as the set of values, attitudes and beliefs that can be used to distinguish one group from another. Managers must have the acumen to adjust their policies and practices to the legal systems of the regions in which they operate. Differences in income profiles among countries may require the firm to adapt its operations, such as the labour skills and labour intensity used in production, pricing strategies and compensation policies. Multinational firms further face a variety of tax regimes when they venture abroad, including national, regional and local fiscal obligations that may differ significantly from those at the home country. Additionally, Trans-national corporations are constrained to adopt policies to avoid or reduce exchange rate risks that may hinder profitability and induce relative shifts in the location advantages.

All these call for specialized management education, exposure to global academic resources including mentoring by richly experienced international faculty and exposure to global geographies to put context to theory.