Advertising and Corporate Strategy As far as advertising by transnational companies is concerned, Jean-Marie Dru (1996) recommends that they should 'think local, act global'. Advertisements have to appeal to consumers of a local culture. To achieve this, advertisements reflect the everyday ... [full story]

Strategic Collaborations in the Airline Industry Swissair, the once respected airline, shocked the world when it grounded all its aircraft in early October 2001, without giving prior warning to passengers. It subsequently went bankrupt. It was however a national icon till ... [full story]

Global Strategy and Local Adaptation Transnational corporations need to formulate global strategies that lend themselves to local adaptation. Schulling (2000) described how this has been done at Procter and Gamble (P & G). The following have been useful for P & ... [full story]

Problems with Global Strategy Many warning signals can alert a multinational corporation to the fact that its global strategy is being resisted by local branches. For instance, there could be a rise in customer complaints and a sudden downturn in sales. ... [full story]

Pepsi's Global Strategizing Following the Cola Wars As recently as 1990, Pepsi had a proprietary contract with the Indian government, which allowed it to be a cola provider in India without competition from Coca-Cola. Since then a paradigm shift has occurred ... [full story]

Transnational Collaborative Arrangements In practice, corporations do not enter into collaborative ventures in one go. They generally proceed from low levels of transnational collaboration to increasingly higher levels. Initially they may prefer collaborations where the responsibility for success in a new ... [full story]

Corporate Strategy and Intercultural Management In essence, corporate strategy is the setting of organizational objectives followed by the establishment of a comprehensive course of action for realizing those objectives. De Wit and Meyer (1998) have averred that corporate strategy is best ... [full story]

Transnational aspects of corporate strategy Certain tools and techniques of corporate strategy contribute to the effectiveness of organizational functioning, irrespective of culture. Practically all the global managers interviewed for this book concur that the following techniques of corporate strategy can be ... [full story]

Strategy and Intercultural Management BMW and 'Glocalization': Case Study in Intercultural Management BMW is a European company of note that is making concerted efforts to address the issue of intercultural management. Its efforts have resulted from its multinational operations. This company has ... [full story]

Core Values and the Integrationist/Differentiation Perspective on Culture The differentiation perspective on culture focuses on diversity, and has been advanced most appealingly by Martin (1992). When the differentiation perspective on culture is applied to transnational corporations, these are seen as made ... [full story]

Core Values as Ties that Bind Across Cultures In their article about the Moscow McDonald's management education system, Vikhanski and Puffer (1993) have described how McDonald's success in Russia is attributable to the emphasis it placed on the dissemination of core ... [full story]

Skills in Intercultural Management: A Core Value The American Michael Todd, a former MBA student of mine at the IESE Business School (in 2001, while I was a visiting professor there), told in a student submission for a course on intercultural ... [full story]

Core Values and Intercultural Management Case Study: Nestlé In 2001, Nestlé was the largest and most diversified food company in the world, with nearly 500 factories in more than 100 countries. In fact, over the period 1867–2000 it surpassed other food manufacturers ... [full story]

Effective Corporate Communication Global managers should feel secure that there exists a common set of core values in the corporation they are working for. Thus, the core values of the company are the same regardless of whether it is a branch ... [full story]

Intercultural Relationships Intercultural communication is enhanced when individuals actually have opportunities to relate to people from other cultures not merely as work associates, but as friends as well. The global managers surveyed for this book mentioned that those individuals who succeeded ... [full story]

Communication infrastructure A considerable amount of the communication engaged in by global managers involves the use of modern technological systems. Hence, corporations interested in transnational operations invest heavily in the physical infrastructure necessary for global communication. Modern communication systems range from ... [full story]

Culture-specificity versus pan-culturalism Global managers interviewed for this book are united in their opinion that the communication mode that works for them is neither culturespecific nor pan-cultural. In other words, they do not believe that a single, universal approach to communication, ... [full story]

Language training The possibilities for communication and interactions are considerably enhanced if managers are proficient in the language of the culture in which they operate. An effective global manager is well versed in at least two languages, if not three. It ... [full story]

Intercultural training In layman's parlance, intercultural training involves a person being educated about the rules that govern communication, interaction and behaviour in another culture. The awareness and insights are then compared against the rules that govern the person's own communication, interaction ... [full story]

Intercultural Communication Intercultural communication is quite simply the process of communication between individuals from different cultures. To understand intercultural communication requires an accurate perception of what is conveyed in the verbal mode, as well as what is non-verbal. Beliefs and attitudes ... [full story]

Inferences What can be said about how communication should be facilitated within the context of intercultural management? Based on existing academic research and the actual corporate experience of Nestlé, we would like to suggest the following. Learning through the cross-fertilization of ideas: ... [full story]

Communication and Intercultural Management Case Study: Nestlé Pierre Listard-Vogt, a former managing director of Nestlé, is quoted by John Daniels and Lee Radebaugh (1998) as having said, 'perhaps we are the only real multinational company existing'. As much as 98 per cent ... [full story]

Cultural Aspects of Japan, the United States and Europe If team incentives are to be implemented successfully in Japan, the United States, and Europe (for example, as in Royal Dutch Shell - see the case study), it is necessary to examine ... [full story]

Restructuring at Shell Holt (1998) described how Royal Dutch Shell reached the decision to restructure in 1995. The restructuring was intended to increase efficiency by removing unwanted bureaucracy. Accordingly, the decision was taken to replace the matrix organization by a global ... [full story]

Structural Mechanisms A transnational organization can employ various types of coordinating mechanism to hold it together as a unified entity. Thus Credit Suisse (see case study) is able to accommodate Project Copernicus within its distinctive structure because it is connected to ... [full story]

Conventional Organizational Structures of Global Organizations Three varieties of structure are commonly used by global organizations. These are the global product division structure, the global area division structure, and the global functional division structure. The global product division When an organization adopts the ... [full story]

Academic Discussion The commonly accepted definition of organizational structure is the durable arrangements constructed by a particular organization, to facilitate its processes and help achieve its objectives. However, a more dynamic perspective on organizations places emphasis on such features as working ... [full story]

Academic Discussion The commonly accepted definition of organizational structure is the durable arrangements constructed by a particular organization, to facilitate its processes and help achieve its objectives. However, a more dynamic perspective on organizations places emphasis on such features as working ... [full story]