On Cultural Differences in the FT
Earlier this week I was quoted in an article in the FT on global cultural differences. The gist of the piece is that many companies are paying attention to and celebrating countries’ differences, which runs counter to the idea that the world is becoming culturally homogenized through the internet. Two of my comments made it into the article:
All companies, says Andrew Kakabadse, professor of international management development at Cranfield School of Management, have done localisation “badly at some point”. The key to making it work is “clarity of strategy”, which is formed “when a company interrogates itself about what it’s really good at”, he says.
and
Prof Kakabadse says this is a reversal of the old strategy of “think global, act local”. Now, it is “think local, then act global”. So, rather than companies customising products to a local market, the focus should be to start with the local products and then try to leverage them globally.
You can read the full article here.
