Building a global process standard at the most international company on earth : DHL Express ; teaching case
Martin Mocker, Jeanne W. Ross, Pablo Ciano · Reutlingen University Academic Bibliography (Reutlingen University) · 2014
As "the most international company on earth", DHL Express promised to deliver packages between almost any pair of countries within a defined time-frame. To fulfill this promise, the company had introduced a set of global business and technology standards. While standardization had many advantages (improving service for multinational customers, faster response to changes in import/export regulations, sharing of best practices etc.), it created impediments to local innovation and responsiveness in DHL Express' network of 220 countries/territories. Reconciling standardization-innovation tradeoffs is a critical management issue for global companies in the digital economy. This case describes one large, successful company's approach to the tradeoff of standardization versus innovation.