Cross Cultural Blunders
At our corporation we usually get lots of emails from visitors to our sites saying how much they appreciate examples of cross cultural blunders. We are consistently asked for even more. Bowing to pressure we have subsequently complied some more examples of how cultural ignorance can and does lead to negative (and substantially of the time humorous) consequences.
The following cultural blunders are thus presented to our visitors and we would again like to stress that such examples of 'culture gone wrong' are presented in order illustrate to individuals how important cultural awareness is in international home business at present.
Managers at 1 American enterprise had been startled when they discovered that the brand name of the cooking oil they had been marketing and advertising in a Latin American country translated into Spanish as "Jackass Oil."
American Motors tried to market its new car, the Matador, based on the image of courage and strength. However, in Puerto Rico the name signifies "killer" and was not well-known on the hazardous roads in the country.
A sales manager in Hong Kong tried to control employee's promptness at perform. He insisted they come to perform on time rather of 15 minutes late. They complied, but then left precisely on time rather of operating into the evening as they previously had accomplished. Significantly work was left unfinished until the manager relented and they returned to their usual time schedule.
A US telephone enterprise tried to market its items and services to Latinos by showing a commercial in which a Latino wife tells her husband to call a friend, telling her they would be late for dinner. The commercial bombed because Latino girls do not order their husbands around and their use of time would not require a call about lateness.
A cologne for males pictured a pastoral scene with a man and his dog. It failed in Islamic countries dogs are deemed unclean.
Proctor & Gamble utilised a tv commercial in Japan that was preferred in Europe. The ad showed a woman bathing, her husband entering the bathroom and touching her. The Japanese considered this ad an invasion of privacy, inappropriate behavior, and in extremely poor taste.
An American organization person refused an offer of a cup of coffee from a Saudi businessman. Such a rejection is regarded as rather rude and the company negotiations became stalled.
A Japanese manager in an American provider was told to give important feedback to a subordinate during a efficiency evaluation. Japanese use high context language and are uncomfortable giving direct feedback. It took the manager five tries prior to he could be direct adequate to talk about the poor performance so that the American understood.
1 firm printed the "OK" finger sign on every single page of its catalogue. In countless parts of Latin America that is regarded as an obscene gesture. Six months of operate had been lost considering that they had to reprint all the catalogues.
Leona Helmsley need to have accomplished her homework ahead of she approved a promotion that compared her Helmsley Palace Hotel in New York as comparable to the Taj Mahal--a mausoleum in India.
A golf ball manufacturing business packaged golf balls in packs of four for convenient acquire in Japan. However, pronunciation of the word "four" in Japanese sounds like the word "death" and items packaged in fours are unpopular.
In 1985 Bechtel pulled out of a joint venture in New Guinea. It seemed flawed from the commence. Bechtel had 33 months to construct a new plant, organize services, and meet a production deadline or face monetary penalties. They planned to location a mine at the best of a mountain in an isolated rain forest, producing a town of 2,500, camps for 400, a power plant, air strip, roads, hospitals, and support services (for natives who had never ever seen a Westerner). The natives who were recruited to function (even though receiving 400 inches of rain throughout the rainy season) had no idea of private property, modern revenue, central government, or operate regulations. The multicultural workforce of 5,000 was composed of mixed indigenous people and imported technicians from the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Korea, and Philippines. The road builders did not think in operating about the clock (the contractor finally went bankrupt). Natives also did not like the perform schedule so they went with bows and arrows to shut down telephone lines, roads, and frighten personnel. There was an 85% turnover in the native workforce.
FEDEX (Federal Express) wisely chose to expand overseas when it discovered the domestic marketplace was saturated. But, the centralized or "hub and spoke" delivery program that was so prosperous domestically was inappropriate for overseas distribution. In addition, they failed to give some thought to cultural differences: In Spain the workers preferred really late office hours, and in Russia the workers took truck cleaning soap home due to consumer shortages. FEDEX finally shut down more than 100 European operations soon after $1.2 billion in losses.
Mountain Bell Corporation tried to promote its telephone and services to Saudi's. Its ad portrayed an executive talking on the phone with his feet propped up on the desk, showing the soles of his shoes-- one thing an Arab would by no means do!
If any individual else can contribute with their own cultural blunder please feel free of charge to pass them on!
