Why African Americans Should Learn International Business

What can African Americans do to become more marketable in the global economy?

African Americans can become more marketable in the global economy by first acknowledging that globalization is a reality. Globalization began in the late 1980s and accelerated through communication and technology advancements. Still, that does not necessarily define this phenomenon, just explains the conduits it operates thru. When you apply for a job or submit a bid for your own company or someone else, your competition has changed dramatically. Your competition is not limited to your city, region or other states but has expanded internationally and includes India, China, and Japan. It is not just the advanced economies like Japan but developing economies like India that compete head to head with the United States. New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winning author Tom Friedman termed it, as “while I was sleeping” in his bestselling book “The World is flat describing this integrative process we know live as globalization. Daniels, Radebaugh and Sullivan’s definition of globalization “is the broadening set of interdependent relationships among people from different parts of the world that happens divided into nations. The term sometimes, refer to the integration of world economies through the reduction of barriers to the movement of trade, capital, technology, and people.” The latter is my focal point for answering the original question. (Daniels, 2011, 2009, 2007)

The late Peter Lynch, management guru had told us that a knowledge economy was coming. There would be a new economy coming in the 21st century. Lynch called it the “knowledge economy” and and for the U.S. to prepare. Yet, outsourcing started happening, no one knew why. New industries like supply chain, green and information technology were born while old industries like automobile and manufacturing were declining. Then the subprime mortgage market imploded and spilled over into the financial...