by Chen Yi, Siemens China
The western, eastern, urban and rural civilians are coming to an end. We are approaching a kind of global civilian. Looking into different culture seriously is the first step for all executives who are turning to global operation.Over past several years, particularly since 1996, the global merge wave has hit almost all sectors from primary industry to tertiary industry. Many leading companies of different industries are seeking to merge and acquisition to make solid preparation for global economic integration. The size of an equity has been an important competitive factor and prerequisite for getting the upper hand in future competition. Coming with the trend to merge, decision-makers are apt to sell out some of their business sectors which can not play roles in the global competition.
Due to the over-production around the world, many enterprises are expecting to establish strategic alliances to step up penetration into global market. Until to now, most international companies failed to achieve their initial goals because decision-makers of those companies are incompetent in the face of global market . The establishment of alliance increases the probability of sending domestic executives to overseas affiliates. The rising probability, however, does not bring more successes because many managers are lack of enough competent to deal with the across-border and-culture -issues. In fact, the global market consists of hundreds of countries and thousands of cultures. In such situation, failure to get market share, inability to bring forth new products, no patience, inappropriate nomination to manager, wrong choice to partners and conservative communication with local organizations are all full embodiment of incompetence. An executive who desires to be a successful manager of global vision should know how to start his/her first step. An successful manager of multinational corporation is supposed to have an insight in the local culture and ability to take full advantage of the culture. He(She) respects personalities of all subordinates no matter what passports they hold and culture background they have. He(She) can self-adjust to the people of different culture, racism and religions for avoiding the culture conflicts.
A survey shows that almost all expatriates mangers in Shanghai have strong interests in local culture and customs and even can speak a little Shanghainese ( dialect ). These decision-makers know clearly what they produce in Shanghai are most for local market. Normally, local people often express their ideal life styles through their preference to some kind of product. In other words, the preference, to some extent, is kind of local culture.
Global operation needs the in-depth understanding over global culture.
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