Articles Analysis Essay on Culture and Business

Article I: The Mistakes Companies Make When Marketing to Different Cultures

The article "The Mistakes Companies Make When Marketing to Different Cultures" tries to point out at the mistake most multicultural businesses make while they market their products to diverse cultures. The author tries to shows certain misconceptions that companies cling to concerning how to market to consumers of diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds. The most apparent problem according to the article is that most multicultural strategies and analysis still view consumers mainly through demographics instead of making an effort to understand the consumer demands. The main assumptions made by the author are how he explicitly states how "western business culture" has been actively superimposed by multinational companies in their new ventures. The article also assumes, though not explicitly stated, that consumers from different cultures are more likely to be super consumers (people who buy a misappropriated amount of a particular product) (Yoon, 2015).

The author's main arguments are that managers should be able to look beyond demographics while venturing into new markets. Secondly, the authors argue that culture is a choice, not a birthright and therefore everyone has an option to what they consume. The evidence presented to support the argument is based on trends such as the consumption of hip-hop music or a Korean Soap Opera that changes with time and therefore cannot be used as a long-term determinant of the consumer's preference. However, the conclusion layout by the author has a firm basis that supports the idea he was trying to underlay. The article leaves concerns of how a global organisation can determine a long-term trend of multicultural consumers, their consumption cultures that can help the managers to lay out a long-term strategy.

Article II: When Culture Doesn't Translate

The article "When Culture Doesn't Translate" tries to relay the primary problems that organisation face when they try to expand internationally. The report states the issues that mainly occur within the organisation's internal environment such as implicit communication breakdown, corporate culture clashes with local culture, and fault lines that appear among the employees. The author's underlying assumptions are that all the problems that arise among employee from different cultures are cultural based rather than employee contempt, dislike or feeling of superiority from the qualifications of the other employees. The author also implicitly tries to imply that the American employees should work to adapt to different cultures instead of finding common ground cause most of the problems(Meyer, 2015).

The article argues that the as companies internationalise to exploit new opportunities, they should identify the dimension of difference between those cultures. They should give everyone a voice regardless of their locality, train every employee on basic norms while entering new markets, protect the most creative units especially about communication and try to be heterogeneous in all their branches about the employees that they recruit. The nature of evidence presented shows how substantial cultural differences alter the performance of an individual organization, although the authors did not relay proof from the perspective of both opposing sides the conclusion was explicitly supported. The primary concern from this article is that the author should have tried to argue his evidence using both sides of the story instead of just showing argument from ones. This can be if the Thai manager tried to communicate their cultural norms to the American counterpart instead of complaining about it. About other articles, the articles ascertain how most of the American companies misappropriates or fails to take time to understand different cultures before they expand their businesses.

Article III: Case Study - "Levendary Cafe: The China challenge."

Levendary cafe was built on a culture that emphasized "delighting the customer", this philosophy also translated into local menus adoption where they had established stores in the urban, suburban and rural areas across the united states, unlike MacDonald's which had one menu, the cafe was more flexible, thus venturing into the China market required a similar approach(Bartlett & Han, 2013). The critical issues facing Levendary restaurant in China is lack of a well spelt out strategy and support from the headquarters when the cafe opened their first store in China. Due to this, Chen adopted his model that felt right in the China market where he opened each new store with a different menu that well suited its consumers.

Louis Chen has been strategic on his approach in the China market; he has incorporated each new store into the culture. He has diversified the company's menu in each location while still maintaining the feel and look of the cafe. However, Chen lacks basic knowledge of the Cafe's running strategy such as keeping the standards of the restaurant even for Levendary's international customers. Therefore the primary approach that should be taken to improve the product is to ensure that all the cafe's new locations should adhere to the look and appearance of the company since it is a brand. Secondly, Mia should try to establish a standard favourite dish that the cafe identifies itself with while still integrating with each cultures liking. The headquarters should closely monitor how their international franchise is running. This can include strategies such as moving one of their managers to their China locations whose can help Chen in establishing the Cafe's operating policies, secondly, they can ensure that before a new store is opened, they are there to oversee the process and ensure that it adheres to the Levendary brand. Above all the management should find common ground to operate on without compromising the brand or the market share.

References

Bartlett, C. A., & Han, A. (2013). Levendary Cafe: The China challenge. Harvard Business School, 1-13.

Meyer, E. (2015). When Culture Doesn't Translate: How to expand abroad without losing your company's mojo. Harvard Business Review, 1-8.

Yoon, E. (2015). The Mistake Companies Make When Marketing to Different Cultures. Harvard Business Review, 1-4.