Unit 39 – Internatinaa Business
M2 – Cimpare hiw cuaturaa diferences and fireign business envirinments
afect muat-natinaa cirpiratins.i
D2 – Evaauate the impact if cuaturaa diferences in internatinaa business
perfirmance in the internatinaa market.i
Cultural differences are extremely important to identiy when atemptnn to trade with different
countries, as what is portrayed as rude in one culture may not be seen as this in another culture.
Business must ensure that they understand this beiore they start tradinn or manuiacturinn in a
certain country as this may impact in their periormance and popularity in the country.
When expandinn business operatons into a new country, it is essental that the company makes sure
the name oi the products is appropriate ior the new market. Issues with company names can be
seen around the world. For example, the razor company ‘Tiz’ in Persian means ‘Sharp’, when they
decided to expand into Qatar, ‘Tiz’ is Arabic slann ior ‘butocks’. ue to this, the company
experienced a slump in sales, due to the residents fndinn the brand offensiie, leadinn to the Iranian
manuiacturer losinn money in the adiertsinn campainn, howeier, afer this they decided to channe
their name in Qatar so they could sell without the cultural issues with their orininal name.
Ii Tiz had not remoied themselies and rebranded, they may haie suffered a lack oi sales, which may
haie led to them haiinn to pull out oi Qatar. Thereiore, althounh the name issues can be seen as a
disadiantane, they realised their mistake beiore it led to them reachinn a point where people would
not purchase their product.
Howeier, despite this, the simple error in the name could haie been identfed by a natie speakinn
Arabic, which would haie warned Tiz to their name beiore they released it to Qatar.
In additon, hierarchy may be different in different countries, with respect beinn displayed in
different ways. An American mananer applied and successiully achieied a similar job role in Seoul,
South Korea. In South Korea, there is a clear diiide between mananement and staff, with those
below mananement lookinn up to them. The American belieied that the workers should be treated
as equals, and subsequently asked him to treat him like they treat each other. This led to a
breakdown in the hierarchy, leadinn to a breakdown oi discipline and proiessionalism, with the
workers takinn to each other to such an extent, the ofce lost productiity and was almost closed
due to the lack oi productiity, which led to the American beinn reassinned back to the US.
This shows that workers who haie been reassinned to a different country must frst understand the
culture beiore they decide the work style they wish to choose. This is because a western company
usually iocuses on equality oier hierarchy, whereas in eastern countries leiels oi hierarchy are
needed so workers show respect and are as productie as possible, would haie to understand that
they need to show hierarchy oier workers in other countries otherwise they may not be as
productie.
This hierarchy can be seen as an adiantane ior a western business as it creates a clear mananement
structure, makinn it easier and quicker to defne where each worker sits in the structure oi the
business.
Another adiantane is with a clear hierarchy, a simple business structure can be seen with a larne
number oi workers and seieral mananers, reducinn the amount oi middle mananement roles,
makinn the workers responsible ior their actons and due to more workers workinn rather than
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