The guidelines that need to be taken into account when designing global products and services

Successfully designing global products and services requires managers to make tough trade-offs between global and local demands. Several guidelines apply, including the following:

1. Globally standardised products and services can bring the benefits of not just cost savings, but also those of improved quality and customer preference.
2. The best global products are usually those that are designed as such from the start rather than being adapted from national products later.
3. Designers of global products and services should try to maximise the size of the common global core while also providing for local tailoring around the core.
4. In investigating customer needs around the world, managers should look for similarities as well as for differences.