International company vs. Global company

I roughtly remeber there is a kind of definition between "International company" vs. " Global company." It says, an international company is a kind of company that opens offices worldwide and tries to have international presence, whereas global company is the one that really allows a multi-national, multi-cultural working environment.

As a Chinese who grew up in Asia and tries to work with the people here, I happened to expreince 3 different kinds of employers. My first employer is a mid-size company. When I worked there they were agressively trying to open offices and expand business in Asia. I was lucky enough able to present my multicultural experience and knowledge during the expansion. Because of that, they apprecaite my work and tolerate my accent. The reality is it's not often to see couple internationals in marketing team in such size company, however, this company appreciate various viewpoints from international to their business.

2nd employer is a big international company. Their presence in worldwide is strong and they have a good reputation in Asia as well. I was very surprised when first time went to the monthly marketing meeting and found out I was the only 2 Chinese faces in the organization. There is even no A-B-C in the team! They probably couldn't understand 100% of my communication since sometimes I saw them frowned during my talking. It was a very unique experiment and I realized this cannot workout in several months.


The current employer is a global company. I cannot believe during their 1.5 day orientation they even include "diversity" in the agenda. If you ever went to an orientation, you will know the agenda is pretty much like IT security, HR, benefits and legal. Not only these, this company tries to make employees aware the need of having a diversity culture. I was very touched seeing them doing this.
My manager once talked to me that, "Unlike us American can only speak one language, I admire you people can speak more than one languages."

Again, I was very touched and appreciated.