Global identity and local roots

1
Global identity and local roots

• South Carolina state legislatures call for
  boycott of French products
• Company that stood to lose Group Michelin
• Overcoming distance through globalization
• Michelins response, A boycott of Michelin
  products in the U.S. would be a boycott of
  American products made in 17 U.S. Factories
  located in 7 states.

Source Wall Street Journal
2
Outsourcing spam

• S. Korea and China becoming major exporters of
  Internet spam
• S. Korea has advanced broadband infrastructure
• China largely unregulated no control over
  infrastructure
• U.S. crackdown
• Lawsuits by ISPs
• Can Spam Act
• Legislative efforts

Source Business Week
3
AES and the Bujagali dam

• Ugandas power project
• AES backed away from the project after investing
  70 million
• Cited continuous delays 10 years
• Cultural issue resettlement of spirits
• Plagued by bribery charges, opposed by
  environmentalists

Source Washington Post, New York Times
4

• New Danish immigration laws
• Age, minimum income restrictions, proof of
  stronger connection to Denmark
• Effort to reduce influx of foreigners
• Social welfare implications
• Level of crime
• Creation of enclaves
• Cultural issue
• Cultural integrity (differing growth rates),
  integration and assimilation

Source New York Times
5
Culture quiz

• Read my lips
• http//www.economist.com/diversions/quiz.cfm/citie
  setiquettequiz

6
Differences in culture

• Session 7

7
IPCO in Thailand
8
International negotiations -IPCO

• Importance of knowing who you are dealing with
• Differences in culture
• Need to put points in audiences perspective

9
Our culture is what is familiar,
recognizable, habitual. It is what goes without
saying. Van
Maanen and Laurent
10
Determinants of culture

• Social structure individual v/s group
• Social strata and mobility
• Religion and ethics
• Language
• Education

11
Culture in management settings

• Interactions between firms
• Negotiations with suppliers, dealing with
  customers, collaborative activities
• Relationship development
• Active negotiations (silent languages)
• Specificity of agreements
• Interactions within firms
• Managing cross cultural relations (motivation,
  performance evaluation and compensation

Source Harvard Business School
12
Dimensions of culture

• Edwin Halls silent languages of
• Time
• Space
• Material goods
• Friendship
• Agreement
• High context (Japanese, Latin) v/s low context
  cultures (American, German, Scandinavian)

• Hofstedes cultural dimensions
• Individualism v/s collectivism
• Power distance
• Uncertainty avoidance
• Masculinity/ feminity
• Confucianism

13
IPCO in Thailand
14
International negotiations -IPCO

• Importance of knowing who you are dealing with
• Differences in social norms
• Need to put points in audiences perspective

15
Values in Tension

• Cultural relativism
• When in Rome, do as the Romans do
• 1980s European pharmaceutical companies offload
  PCBs in Nigeria
• Restoration of SS United States in Ukraine
• Absolutism (ethical imperialism)
• U.S. computer products firm in Saudi Arabia
• Balancing the extremes
• Respect for human beings
• Good citizenship

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Doing well by doing good

• Corporate social responsibility
• Who cares? - Consumers care
• How much? - A lot
• Levi Strauss
• Motorola
• Bonafide movement in the EU

Source HBR, NY Times
17
Foreign investment

• Hong Kong companys proposal to invest in
  American Stock Exchange
• Interest in a controlling stake
• Political reaction to the deal

18
Harassment suit in the U.S.

• Harassment suit in the U.S. against executive of
  leading Indian software provider
• Typically harassment swept under the carpet in
  India
• Implications for work place policies and
  processes
• Programs to train employees on cross cultural
  differences
• Hiring senior managers from local market to serve
  as workplace role models

Source NY Times
19
The Americas What you read is what you are?

• American magazines in Canadian markets
• Protecting national culture
• Bill C-55 against split-run editions of American
  magazines
• Cultural exemption

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Rupert Murdochs News Corp

• Media industry the stuff of national culture
• U.S. Required to become a citizen in order to
  buy TV companies
• Asia Star TV, ignoring cultural distance
• Europe - False starts, broken alliances in
  France, Germany and Italy
• To come into Italy and say you want 100 of
  soccer is a huge mistake. Its like saying you
  want to buy the Vatican
• New tactics in siege of Fortress Europe

21
Japanese appetite for luxury goods

• Japanese shoppers account for half of all sales
  of Gucci Group, Louis Vuitton
• European luxury goods producers expand in Japan
  Prada, Christian Dior
• Luxury products a part of the Japanese national
  culture

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Scope of culture

• Multilingual Switzerland struggles with a
  question of cultural heritage
• Four national languages German, French, Italian
  and Romansch
• Growing appeal of English The language war is
  declared
• The end of Switzerland?
• Recently, Chinese school systems new emphasis

23
INGs bid for CCF

• Dutch firms offer to acquire French target for
  10 billion euros
• Europe a seamless market linked by a common
  currency or one underscored by differences in
  national culture
• View from Paris You dont buy a bank in 24
  hours
• View from Amsterdam CCF asked so many
  questions, seemed like excuses to delay the
  process

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Wipro Technologies

• Corporate culture
• Internal hierarchy
• Emotional wall v/s wall of logic
• Working across borders
• Easier to work with Americans than Japanese or
  Europeans
• Challenging (precision in commitments, more
  organized and disciplined)
• American clients more expressive than other
  counterparts

25
Making the most of cultural differences

• 3M Russia has enjoyed profitable, double-digit
  sales in the last decade
• Leveraging positive traits
• Aggressively implemented team based work
  practices
• Hired most executives locally
• Strives to be an ethical leader charitable
  contributions
• Making itself more Russian