Introduction There has been significant growth in international corporate operations. For most companies this has been to take advantage of new opportunities or to leverage existing operations. While there is no “ golden rule ” as to how these international operations should be implemented or managed, Michael Porter (1986) in his book “Competition in Global Industries” classifies the various global strategies adopted by different corporations along a continuum from multi-domestics through to multi-nationals. According to Porter (1986) multi-domestics refers to offshore operations operating independently and are based upon local business processes supported by a local infrastructure. At the other end of the continuum are multi-nationals; where operations are integrated globally, based on standardised business processes with the ability to account for local differences. Bartlett and Ghoshi (1998) also identified a continuum consisting of four strategies which could be employed to support global operations. These strategies are multinational, international, global and transnationals. The continuum reflects increasing levels of integration and control between the various global strategies. At one end of the continuum are multinationals which by definition are similar to Porter's (1986) “multi- domestics”. The authors argue that this strategy provides flexibility to respond to domestic opportunities. While the international strategy allows subsidiaries a level of autonomy it also provides for the diffusion of the parent company's knowledge and practices throughout the organisation. In a global strategy there is centralised coordination and control involving standardisation of all aspects of the value chain. Transnationals are the final strategy in the continuum and support standardisation and a high level of integration across the organisation, while at the same time achieving the balance