Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, corporate America discovered, then thrived on, unprecedented expansion in major cities around the world.

Markets simultaneously exploded and strained under skyrocketing capitalization, which consumed human and property resources at a dizzying clip.

Globalization brought new challenges to corporate real estate managers with global responsibility. Understanding anomalies such as key money; dilapidation clauses; floor plates measured in tsubo, pyong and ping; and self-renewing leases were all part of the global education.

In every major capital, corporate managers found an established rank of real estate service providers who supplied the local expertise critical to support expansion.

Those companies who ventured beyond the fringe of major cities in Western Europe and Asia, and into Central Europe, China, Latin America, the Middle East, India and Africa, found a noticeable drop in modern infrastructure and skilled practitioners.

Then came the Asian financial crisis, the downturn in telecom, the bursting of the dot.com bubble, and the ensuing stock market collapse. Major metropolitan areas around the world were impacted. Multi-national companies scrambled to restructure bloated business units and shore up shrinking margins by cutting excess everywhere.

The end of 2002 marked 30 straight months of job losses for U.S. manufacturers. Around the world, Europe’s biggest economies are caught in a powerful downdraft, Latin American economies shrank on average 1 percent in 2002, and Asia’s unchecked export competitiveness threatens to destabilize already precarious trade deficits.

This is the backdrop of an edgy new world, one where the need for cross-cultural understanding seems to have been overcome by events. But it’s also one where global and regional companies alike now shop the world’s low-cost labor markets looking for improved cost efficiencies in back-office operations and customer-contact functions.

Onetime outposts in Central Europe, Latin America and Asia now are able to compete with tier-one cities around the world.

In secondary locations like the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Central Asia, sustainable competitive advantage is defined as a young, educated labor force that welcomes discarded jobs and discounted wages with unbridled enthusiasm.

The extended global landscape presents significant challenges, both physical and intangible, to the global corporate real estate manager. The shortfall in available infrastructure and experienced service providers outside leading economic centers is more pronounced.

So too is the absence of normal market dynamics, the lack of transparency regarding property ownership, records and/or transactions, and institutionalized patronage, if not full on nepotism and/or corruption.

Experience in the late 20th century has proven that the more significant the technical challenges, the more critical cross-cultural skills are to a successful outcome. In fact, one may be the key to the other. Managers not attuned to cultural differences will find it more difficult to get results in foreign markets, and will fail to capitalize on the professional assistance available in a given market.

Dino Piccini is managing director of DTZ Staubach Tie Leung, which provides clients with help on international site location decisions. He can be reached at (212) 418-2600 or dino.piccini@staubach.com. Douglass B. Spilman is senior vice president of International Services DTZ Staubach Tie Leung. He can be reached They can be reached at (650) 369-7252 or doug.spilman@staubach.com.