Shared goals to improve virtual integration

Agility requires the ability to be able to respond to local market demands and opportunities. However, companies should still aim to employ skills and capabilities across the regions in which they operate. This means they need to establish and strive for shared goals across their business units as a form of virtual integration, with local operations remaining in place and the focus staying on local customer service (van Hoek etal, 2001). 

Most often, however, companies tend either towards local responsiveness or to strong global standardisation and organisation. Hewlett-Packard used to be in the former camp. At one point, for example, the company found that there were dozens of similar B2B exchange efforts under way across the company with at best informal coordination between teams. HP did not respond with a centralisation of efforts and control. Instead, it developed a distributed governance approach that allows for local responsiveness, but that also uses lessons learned for the company and avoids duplication of efforts. 

The last two are particularly interesting as they help avoid creating a corporate centre approach that could dictate policy without the businesses caring or paying for it. 

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