Demands of Globalisation
Globalisation creates increasingly complex demands on you:
- European cross-border mergers and acquisitions have increased dramatically in recent years.
- Off-shoring is no longer done for purely cost-saving purposes. Next Generation Off-Shoring is also down to skills shortages, and for innovation. Duke Fuqua Business School have forecast that off-shoring of R&D will increase by around 65% and of engineering and product design by 80% in the next couple of years (click here for further details).
- According to a survey by KPMG, 83% of mergers and acquisitions produce no value for the shareholders. The report concluded that ‘linguistic and cultural divides may explain why deals between the USA and continental Europe were least likely to boost shareholder value.’
- In 2006 Wal-Mart pulled out of the German market, losing 1 Billion USD. Analysts said culture was behind the failure – German consumers simply did not like being greeted with a toothy grin as they entered the stores.
- A recent Hay Group report found that only 28% of executives felt they had done a good job of cultural due diligence before the deal – though 72% considered such an assessment of critical importance.
Globalisation is a fact of life (click here for an article containing ideas on globalisation). Few of us – whether in business, government or non-governmental organisations – will be able to escape working with people from different cultures from our own. This places unprecedented demands on our ability to understand other ways of thinking, behaving and communicating. Without preparation this can lead to unnecessary stress and a feeling of frustration and helplessness.
No matter how strong the business logic is, nor how good your systems and processes are, you should remember that ‘culture eats processes for lunch!’
If you can pull it off by investing time in developing your personal and organisational skills to make culture work for you rather than against you, you can achieve rare competitive advantage.
Cultural interaction is a business process that needs to be managed – it cannot be left to chance.
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