An increasing number of organizations are operating in a multi-national, multi-locational environment. Quite apart from the inherent complexity, managers have to balance the demands of simultaneously driving cost out of the business, whilst increasing service and value to customers. In this Briefing we pose the challenge: “Multi-Site Business Effectiveness – Global can be Local” and we argue that to succeed, organizations must have clearly thought out processes to design, manage and implement change in the multi-site business.

By recognizing common versus local processes, and by splitting out decisions from activities, it is clearly possible to design organizations that balance global efficiency with local market focus. However, unless they are managed in the way they were designed, and each change initiative fully and effectively implemented consistently across every location, they will rapidly revert to type. The winning organizations are those who recognize the urgency, respond to the challenge, and create robust mechanisms for designing, managing and implementing change across their multi-site businesses.

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This article is part of Axon's Supply Chain Management Process.  To view other articles in this process please visit the Supply Chain Management page.