Taking control over destiny is something we would expect from Western cultures; living in harmony with nature is what we anticipate more from Eastern societies. But trying to control nature is increasingly becoming part of Chinese culture—from diverting rivers to build great dams to controlling the weather. Not exactly the first thing that would come to mind when you think of Confucian thought.
With the Beijing Olympics just a few weeks away, the Chinese have begun to talk more seriously about utilizing their highly advanced weather modification techniques to ensure that it doesn’t rain during the Opening Ceremony, according to the Los Angeles Times and China Daily.
What I think is most astonishing is that Americans, as a rule, do not consider altering the weather as an option for an important sporting event—even though we are among the most highly internal-control cultures in the world. In other words, even though we believe (quite differently from most societies) that our destiny is in our own hands, we leave the weather to the fates. Looking at it from this cultural lens, the idea is quite intriguing.
Charlene
RW3
July 23rd, 2008
Posted by
Amanda |
Cultural Awareness, CultureWizard Digest |
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I’m sure that you’re familiar with the recent controversy about wearing head scarves in Turkey. Although Turkey is almost entirely Muslim, in an attempt to impose secularism, certain public religious practices (such as wearing head scarves in universities) was deemed illegal. Recently the Turkish Supreme Court struck down a law that allowed the wearing of head scarves, much to the chagrin of a vocal constituency in the country.
The entire debate brings to mind how deeply held cultural beliefs are and how difficult it is to modify them. It’s clear that as much as a secular democratic regime would not want to limit religious practices, given the powerful religious beliefs of Islam, the Turkish government for the last 70 years felt that the only way to retain secularism was to control outward manifestations of Islamic beliefs. In reality, values, beliefs and behaviors have to fall into a consistent stream and when they don’t, an inevitable discord will arise. That’s what we’re seeing in Turkey today. For more background on this debate, see these articles in PBS and Fox News.
Mike
RW3
July 22nd, 2008
Posted by
Amanda |
Cultural Awareness, CultureWizard Digest |
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To win over Chinese consumers, Western advertisers and global brands are implementing advertising campaigns ‘rooting for China’ in the Beijing Olympics. However, China is not going unchallenged. The Chinese government is pushing its companies to amplify their ad messages to compete with foreign brands. Read more in this International Herald Tribune article.
RW3
July 20th, 2008
Posted by
Amanda |
Global Mindset, Diversity and Inclusion |
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Over the past year, Newsstands in India have seen an influx in Western magazines. Even with a slowing economy, India remains one of the world’s hot spots for magazine publishing. Despite India’s reputation for a conservative attitude, some magazines are addressing racier content and pushing the envelope of good taste even further than they do in their home markets. Read more in this IHT article.
RW3
July 14th, 2008
Posted by
Amanda |
Global Mindset, Cultural Awareness |
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The MEDA ten, a group of the Mediterranean’s poorer southern and eastern coasts are receiving huge quantities of foreign direct investment, second to China. The wave started about five years ago, and now private-equity groups and large investment funds from the Gulf states are joining in. The boom in energy and raw materials, the saturation of European markets and the strong Euro against the dollar have enticed investors to look to these coasts, sparking the ‘Med Revival’.
Read more in the Economist.
RW3
July 10th, 2008
Posted by
Amanda |
Global Mindset |
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Many wondered if Starbucks’ explosive growth in the U.S. would come back to haunt it as the market became saturated. The Seattle coffee giant’s recent decision to close 600 stores in the United States is an overdue acknowledgment that sometimes less is more. The gourmet coffee drinks and cafe atmosphere that made Starbucks famous are no longer seen as a special experience. Customers have now switched to drinking other more exclusive brands or have taken their business to companies that have improved their coffee at a cheaper price. Read more in this HBS article.
RW3
July 9th, 2008
Posted by
Amanda |
Global Management Issues |
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A cultural norm and way of life, the entrepreneurial streak in Taiwan dates back to as early as the 1940s. Small businesses range from American-inspired diners to tea vendors selling tea gift products in bulk to overseas importers from China and Japan. Read more in this Reuters article.
RW3
July 8th, 2008
Posted by
Amanda |
Global Mindset |
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Lotte, South Korea’s largest retailer, plans to open a huge department store in Beijing, China, a test of the company’s plans to launch nine more stores in other big Chinese cities. Lotte’s Beijing staff have been sent to Seoul to learn about its procedures, marketing and service. Lotte’s experience in Russia, where it opened its first foreign store last September, proved to be a challenge. The head of Lotte Russia admitted that the cultural differences were tough to overcome, according to the Korean Times. However, they remain confident in their new endeavor, with high hopes that the cultural differences between South Korea and China will be less pronounced. Read more in the Economist.
RW3
July 1st, 2008
Posted by
Amanda |
Global Mindset, Cultural Awareness |
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Every time I hear or read about a potential business acquisition or merger—especially international ones—I wonder how the smart people who run those organizations can overlook the vital element of cultural integration challenges. The proposed acquisition-merger of Anheuser–Busch (an American company) with InBev (a Belgian-Brazilian company) is another example.
As the WSJ article points out, AB has a hugely popular external-facing focus. Indeed, these are the folks who brought you the Bud Bowl, Spud—the dog, and the Clydesdale commercials. These have been elevated to American icons, with mythologies around them.
In contrast, InBev has a much lower-key profile. In our cultural parlance, this is the proverbial “tip of the iceberg” and the invisible cultural differences will play a major role in how well these companies can succeed through integration. The history of previous deals should make it clear that just as you do a financial and facility due diligence in responsibly examining the impact of a big business deal, so too should businesses examine the cultural challenges they’ll encounter.
Mike
RW3
June 18th, 2008
Posted by
admin |
Cultural Awareness |
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Just about a year ago, Chrysler ended its failed merger with Daimler. As anyone who’s looked at the history of that relationship can tell you, its failure was largely caused by the national and corporate culture challenges that the combined organizations could never resolve.
To his credit, the new Chairman and CEO, Bob Nardelli, recognizes the profound influence of the corporate culture on the profitability of the company. As the WSJ article points out, he believes that the answer to profitability lies not only in production, distribution and finance, but also in the deeply held beliefs reflected in the corporation’s cultural values.
Recognizing how challenging it is to understand and modify the corporate culture, Nardelli has mandated four 3- to 4-day meetings for all of his senior management to examine these values and begin to modify the behaviors he feels the company must change in order to succeed. To take 300 of the top executives out of the office for 12 days is a profound acknowledgment that culture is very difficult to change and top management must take responsiblity to set the culture for the company. In order to understand and change visible, outward behaviors, you need to dig deeply into value systems.
Mike
RW3
June 18th, 2008
Posted by
Amanda |
Cultural Awareness |
one comment
As the increase in new low-cost airlines across Europe have surged, the opportunity for Russians to travel is especially esteemed. Russian tourists are flocking to the Mediterranean, particularly Turkey, to experience what the public was prevented from doing for so long under the Soviet rule. Now, those in the Turkish tourism industry are returning to language school to keep up with the demand for Russian speaking workers. With this freedom to travel comes pleasure and positivity back at home, as the writer and commentator Viktor Yerofeyev states, “the more Russians travel, the more they tend to lose some of the coarseness that at times characterized Soviet society”. Read more in the New York Times.
June 17th, 2008
Posted by
admin |
Global Mindset |
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The EU is expanding in size and voting on a new set of bylaws, called the Lisbon Treaty. Ireland was the only one of the EU’s 27 member states to call a referendum on the treaty. Did Ireland vote on behalf of Europe, or did it vote on behalf of Ireland? Ireland’s prime minister has described his country’s decision to reject the EU reform treaty as “disappointing”. We thought this occurrence was interesting to note because it’s apparent that the Irish may be happy with the status quo and somewhat resistant to change. Read more in this BBC article.
June 17th, 2008
Posted by
Amanda |
Global Mindset, Cultural Awareness |
no comments
According to a recent report by the Institute for Public Policy Research, statistics show that approximately half of an estimated one million people from eastern Europe who migrated to Britain since 2004 have already returned home. Their homecoming emphasizes the strong economic growth in the new European Union states and the present slowdown in Britain. It also highlights how quickly the younger European generation has adapted to working in a globalized economy. Read more in this Reuters article.
RW3
June 17th, 2008
Posted by
Amanda |
Capitalizing on the Global Workforce |
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To effectively sell automobiles in India, France’s top business and engineering schools have sent their students to India to learn the various cross-cultural aspects of working in India and to study the cultural diversity between the two countries. Renault, the French automobile maker sponsoring the trip, will be joining Nissan and Mahindra & Mahindra in setting up a vehicle assembly plant in Chennai in 2009. Read more in the Economic Times.
RW3
June 16th, 2008
Posted by
Amanda |
Global Mindset, Capitalizing on the Global Workforce, Cultural Awareness |
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The Pew Research Center issued its latest Global Attitudes survey last week. The results indicate the image of the U.S. has improved since last year’s survey, based on 16 of the 20 countries that were polled. On the flip side, other countries rated U.S. favorability extremely low. However, as James Glassman states in this International Herald Tribune article, much of the animosity is not deep. Even people who say they dislike America want to have strong bilateral relations, and attitudes are fluid.
RW3
June 14th, 2008
Posted by
Amanda |
Global Mindset, Cultural Awareness |
no comments
Taking control over destiny is something we would expect from Western cultures; living in harmony with nature is what we anticipate more from Eastern societies. But trying to control nature is increasingly becoming part of Chinese culture—from diverting rivers to build great dams to controlling the weather. Not exactly the first thing that would come to mind when you think of Confucian thought. 
