Background

Today’s companies are going global with their business operations. As the world becomes more and more global, and technology advances faster, the world becomes closer. This means that if businesses want to grow in the 21st century and beyond, their biggest option is to expand abroad with their offerings to try to win over foreign peoples. When talking about expansion, according to the BBC, “despite the difficulties, international expansion is often the only way for firms to increase sales. When domestic growth has stalled, other countries can provide a business with fresh customers potentially in an area with less competition or where demand for a particular product or service is higher” (BBC, 2018). Even though this is a monumental opportunity for businesses, when expanding abroad, there are many challenges that even the biggest of companies face.

 

Issue

One of the biggest challenges that companies face is knowing and anticipating different people’s needs in different countries. It is crucial for companies to get their messaging and branding right in different countries to appeal to, and most importantly, not to offend anyone they are trying to target. In the past, companies have been in serious trouble for either having their communications wrong or stepping over some cultural boundary that they shouldn’t have, casting a bad light on the company. For instance, IKEA had some problems when it came out with a catalog in 2012 for its segment in Saudi Arabia, when it airbrushed women out of them. They thought they were appeasing the target audience in that country, but they realized that they were going against their progressive corporate culture and in the process, upset the rest of the world. As well, some companies have predicted and anticipated needs incorrectly, bringing a product to the market that failed because no one saw the need to buy that product.

 

Recommendations

My recommendation to combat this problem is to create an international liaison task force that will oversee the integration of local knowledge to corporate regional teams around the world. As I gain experience in the international business world, I would like to create an international consulting company that is mobile to help different companies overcome local and global barriers to their businesses. Through this team, specific training programs will be created to combat ignorance of the way locals think and educate the employees about how to navigate doing business in that particular country and will help regional teams successfully launch and sell specific products. These training programs will highlight specific aspects of culture (i.e. identities, products of culture, religion, and art) that will help marketers and other departments become successful.

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Steps

Step 1: Create the International Liaison Task Force

Recruiting the right people for the job is one of the most important steps in the process. The International Liaison Task Force should be made up of people who have a transnational mindset, are knowledgeable about the world, and have a passion for teaching others. This team will be made up of five international business experts who have an affinity for traveling and will be willing to work abroad in many different places training employees on how they should do business in certain areas. They should also be creative and be able to think on their feet because the business world moves fast, and the regional departments may need solutions quickly.

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Step 2: Taking on Clients

Once the International Liaison Task Force is recruited, the team will look for client companies who are either looking to expand abroad, or have already expanded abroad and need extra help becoming successful in their new environment. These companies need to be willing to hire a third party to come in and train them on areas they are lacking knowledge in.

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Step 3: Local Knowledge Quiz

Once a client company is established, a local knowledge quiz will be administered to all regional departments to assess whether the employees there know about local culture and the country as a whole. This will be utilized to come up with specific training programs that will teach the employees about the culture, the people and the government of the country in which they are working.

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Step 4: Gather Results

After the local knowledge quiz is administered, results will be gathered and assessed. From these results, training programs will be made for regions with the lowest scoring tests. This is because those with the lowest scoring tests have the most to learn about in regards to their surrounding environment.

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Step 5: Create Training Programs

Once we find the lowest scoring regional departments, a training program will be made specifically for each regional department based on what they should know for them to do business successfully. This can range from learning about religions, art, history, current news, trends, and the geo-political environment the country is in. The training program will optimally be two to three weeks per department. The training program will be this amount of time because businesses do not want to delay in putting theories into practice, and if they take any more time for training, they may miss out on profits. I will also use my learning from beyond the classroom to help construct and inspire the training programs. I will take what I learned abroad and how I learned about a foreign culture and try to inspire the regional departments to explore their foreign environment as well, because that is how the training will come together.

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Step 6: Local Knowledge Quiz

At the end of the training period, another local knowledge quiz will be administered to the regional departments that received the training. The two local knowledge quizzes, the one administered before the training program and the one administered after the training program, will be compared. If the scores align at least with the median of the tests administered to all offices, the training programs will have done their job. After the success of Step 6, the International Liaison Task Force will repeat Step 2 through 6 for another client company.

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Expected Outcomes

What is expected to come from this is a higher knowledge, understanding, and appreciation for local culture and ways of life by teams positioned in different parts of the world. This training program is meant to connect people in a business to their customers more closely so that they can anticipate needs and deliver products or services in a successful way. The International Liaison Task Force is designed to make businesses more efficient and effective. It also serves to remind regions of their business’s objectives, to make the business as a whole more coherent and cooperative. The outcome of this program is to make the company as a whole run smoother while satisfying local populations better than before.

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Connections to Key Insights

The International Liaison Task Force solution incorporates all of my key insights because it teaches companies about the way people live and express in their lives. The training programs will include teachings of the different layers of culture, from the outer layer to the core of each region the employees are working in. This means teaching them on the outer products of culture, to what people view as right and wrong, to the very core of their identities and what the target audience deems as important. The training program will also teach about social institutions such as the family and religion. It will also teach about artwork, and this is especially important for advertising and branding, because studying artwork from the region that they are in will help make advertisements that are more appealing to the target market in those specific regions. To wrap up, all of my key insights can make an impact on this solution in teaching others how to respect and appreciate how others live, and incorporated that into their businesses to become successful.

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Works Cited

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Hope, K. (2015). The challenges of going global. BBC News. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-33224596

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Quinn, B. (2012). Ikea apologises over removal of women from Saudi Arabia catalogue. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/02/ikea-apologises-removing-women-saudi-arabia-catalogue

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Reynolds, K. (2016). 11 Biggest Challenges of International Business in 2017. Hult Blog. Retrieved from http://www.hult.edu/blog/international-business-challenges/

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