There has been some debate as to whether companies should adapt to local markets or whether they should focus globally. My rather strong position on this is that, today, local adaptation is a sign of weakness. The companies with the strongest business models and the greatest competitive advantage, companies such as Microsoft and Mercedes for example, practise minimal local adaptation. In fact, the recent announcement by Coca-Cola that it is to revert to local marketing can be seen as a sign of the company's weakness and an indication that it is no longer as dominant as it was. Hence my set of industry globalization drivers.
Personal computers score highly while global food products are at the other end of the scale.
In any market or industry now there is a global segment for global products but there are also national niches. The point is that the size of the global segment varies from category to category. In cars you have a moderately sized global segment in the middle, some quite large regional segments, e.g. North American, European, Asian, and, I would say, almost non-existent national niches. This, of course, does not mean that we are all going to have the same products - but, instead of a proliferation of national products, we're seeing a proliferation of global products. For example, Italian Benetton clothes are now competing with Spanish Zara lines - the styles are more or less global.