Cultural differences in communication and workplace contexts

Cultural Differences

Cultural Mistakes" that Cost Companies Loss of Market Share

The articles The Pitfalls of Cross-Cultural Business, and A Hyper Market, have indicated a number of cultural mistakes by many companies and businesses that have caused them with failures in their expected business deals and transactions. That is, the shortcomings in learning and understanding the traditions and cultural behavior of the target business partners, customers, or clients, at times result to loosing the chance in succeeding in their business endeavors. Following are some of the "cultural mistakes" that have been identified from the articles.

Lack of knowledge in the demands and preferences of the target foreign market.

The article A Hyper Market focused on this general mistake by foreign investors, particularly in the area of foreign trading of consumer products. For instance, hyper markets such as CarreFour, Wal-Mart, and Tesco, are seen to be a fad in the past years and are continuously growing in number worldwide. They appeal to people because such houses selling of almost all consumer needs. But up to which level can its success be assessed? Some hyper markets tend to fail and loss their market share due to failure in learning the culture of their customers. For instance, as used by the article A Hyper Market, Wal-Mart selling American-sizes of clothing in China tends to hold market share problems. This is because there are not much Chinese who can patronize such products of Wal-Mart because of the fact that most Chinese are either small or medium in physical built. As suggested by the author of the A Hyper Market article,

The lesson appears to be that Asians may indeed be drawn to trendy foreign names, wide aisles and air conditioning; but they also demand a local touch.

Lack of knowledge in the traditions and customs of the target foreign market.

It is unfortunate but it is true that some businesses cost them with loss of business deals and transactions due to a business-irrelevant and simple mistake of not having able to have knowledge of the traditions and customs of the target foreign market. Every nation may have different traditions, customs, and belief and such are oftentimes seen to be present during business events. Hence, it is important that when conducting business with people from a different cultural background, one should know the proper ways to behave with them because it is from good interpersonal relationship where good business transactions may transpire. Otherwise, one party may put at risk the success of his business deals with the other party. For instance, crossing our foot over our knee may be seen as a casual type of sitting in most culture. But for the Muslims, such is a form of an insult.

Lack of knowledge in the "beneath the surface" customs of the target foreign market.

Jared Wade's article, The Pitfalls of Cross-Cultural Business, indicates the importance of having knowledge not just on the visible aspects of one's cultural background, such as how to greet and how to do in dining etiquettes, but similarly on the "beneath the surface" cultural aspects of foreign business parties. Otherwise, one may put at risk the foundation of a good business relationship. As suggested by Wade (2004),

These aspects are what create most conflicts in business relationships because they are less obvious and can rarely be laughed off by either party.

For instance, as indicated by Wade, speaking straight to the point and not beating around the bush is a form of conducting an honest business transaction. However, in some culture, such practice may be taken as a rude process. For instance, being indirect is a form of politeness in Japan. But such will be seen as nothing but a form of dishonesty in the American business scenario.

How to Approach Foreign Markets from the Perspective of Culture

In the event of conducting business relationships, there are a number of strategies that business parties can use to approach the foreign markets from the perspective of culture. Some of them are the following:

Prior learning of the culture of one foreign business party will not do any harm to the other.

Before conducting business with a party from another region, it will be helpful for international companies to learn some cultural background of the other part. It is important to consider that not every people, especially between those that come from totally different cultural background, have similar regard for culture. Hence, it is always safe to think that the culture of other is very important to them.

Use the perspective of culture as an important factor to consider when deciding to have business with an international company.

Culture sometimes affects how a company grows. When good culture is being practiced in a company, chances are the company has the ability to provide good business relationship with other companies as well as to its customers. It is always important to realize that good culture imbibed within the people of a company in some ways assure that business relationship with them throughout the entire business partnership can flow smoothly.

If possible, attend trainings to learn more about the culture of the other party.

Learning the culture of the other party is both an investment and insurance to consider. To ensure a higher chance of a successful relationship to a foreign market, learning how to be like them can help in learning how to solve future challenges with them.