Indeed, the case of Rolls Royce is a dramatic example of globalization: "The quintessential British company, Rolls Royce, which, though still headquartered in England, now operates through a horizontal global supply chain, and its CEO, a British citizen knighted by the queen is being courted by the chancellor of Germany to help him drum up business in Russia, because one link in the Rolls-Royce supply chain happens to run through Brandenburg."

Rolls Royce no longer manufactures cars (the Rolls Royce brand of car was sold to BMW long ago). It is a global business providing power system for use on land, at sea and in the air. The Group has a balanced business portfolio with leading positions in the civil and defense aerospace, marine and energy markets.

In its 2005 Annual Report, Sir John Rose describes the presence of Rolls Royce in Asia: "Growth in Asia is prompting more air travel, both for business and for pleasure, increasing the energy requirements to support industrial development and larger numbers of affluent homes. It is stimulating investment in oil and gas exploration and transmission and it is boosting orders for marine propulsion systems from Asia’s ship building industries, now the largest and fastest growing in the world. These are all target markets for Rolls-Royce and we are benefitting accordingly. In 2005 sales to the region increased by 18 percent and the order book for the region increased by 70 percent.

"Our physical presence in Asia is also growing. We incorporated a new subsidiary in Bangalore, in order to expand engineering capacity over a range of new programmes. We established a joint venture in Singapore, to develop a commercially viable power system based on solid oxide fuel cell technology. We opened a new marine factory in Shanghai, from which the Group’s £300 million turnover merchant business will be managed. And we established new sources of supply in markets such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.

One day Rolls Royce could very well have a presence in the Global Gateway of Clark-Subic-Tarlac. If we play our cards right, we can replicate to do for Rolls Royce what Lufthansa Teknik is already doing in the Philippines. In the same 2005 Annual Report, Sir John Rose cited as one of its strategic directions the continued development of aftermarket services: "Aftermarket service revenues, including 100 percent of our repair and overhaul joint ventures, increased by 12 percent in 2005 and have grown at 11 percent per annum compound over the past ten years. Services now represent 54 per cent of our revenues. This is a consequence of the successful broadening of the Group’s product range, the steady increase in the number of our engines in service and the investment we have made in a comprehensive range of aftermarket-service capabilities.

"Increasingly, we are taking responsibility for the maintenance of our engines and systems under long-term service agreements. This aligns our commercial interests closely with those of our customers, and maximizes the value that our skills and assets can add. During 2005 a number of innovative service agreements were announced in each of the Group’s business sectors."

It would be advisable for our leading technical schools training electro-mechanical workers, such as Dualtech, Meralco Foundation, and the Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE) to demonstrate to the Rolls Royce management that, as we are already doing for Lufthansa Teknik, the Philippines can produce highly skilled workers for the repair and overhaul of airplane engines. With the strategic location of Clark and Subic in the Asian region, Rolls Royce may consider the Philippines as an important link in its global supply chain in the not too distant future. For comments, my email is HYPERLINK "mailto:bvillegas@uap.edu.ph" bvillegas@uap.edu.ph_.