First, I will go there to study the market, to meet people, and to understand their habits, culture and practices.
Second, I will equate how to merge local “doing business” with companies needs and with local market practices, demand and opportunities.
Third, businesses are managed by people. You can have the best system and control implemented, but if you don’t have a liaison with key people at your branch, you will not know what actually will be happening there. So, it is fundamental to develop empathy and synergy with local staff.
To not extend too much, well, we need key figures, scenarios and feedback to be able to evaluate remotely. The evaluation needs to consider local environment and characteristics, which means, each place has a story, so each place needs to have an unique evaluation. We can not generalise.
Answering the second part of the question, our leadership presence will always be necessary. That doesn’t mean that you will need to be there physically, but you need to be available to discuss any issue, you need, as already said, to have and maintain synergy and empathy with the local staff, and to be updated. So, if the guidance is clear and understood, and if you are aware of local particularities and cultural differences, your presence, there, can be constrained to special events, or when it is necessary to meet a key client to define a contract that has special conditions, or to the periodical visits that should exist to keep close liaison with the local staff.
To endorse what I said about different cultures and practices, maybe a good reading will be:
Hofstede Cultural Dimensions
http://www.geert-hofstede.com/
Low vs. High Power Distance – the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.
Individualism vs. collectivism – individualism is contrasted with collectivism, and refers to the extent to which people are expected to stand up for themselves and to choose their own affiliations, or alternatively act predominantly as a member of a life-long group or organization.
Masculinity vs. femininity – refers to the value placed on traditionally male or female values (as understood in most Western cultures). So called ‘masculine’ cultures value competitiveness, assertiveness, ambition, and the accumulation of wealth and material possessions, whereas feminine cultures place more value on relationships and quality of life.
Uncertainty avoidance – reflects the extent to which members of a society attempt to cope with anxiety by minimizing uncertainty. Cultures that scored high in uncertainty avoidance prefer rules (e.g. about religion and food) and structured circumstances, and employees tend to remain longer with their present employer.
Long vs. short term orientation – describes a society’s “time horizon,” or the importance attached to the future versus the past and present. In long term oriented societies, values include persistence (perseverance), ordering relationships by status, thrift, and having a sense of shame; in short term oriented societies, values include normative statements, personal steadiness and stability, protecting ones face, respect for tradition, and reciprocation of greetings, favours, and gifts.
Do you agree with this positioning or will you have more suggestions on how to manage a foreign branch?
Filed under: Globalization, Management, Marketing & Sales, Strategy | Tagged: cultural dimensions, culture, doing business, empathy, foreign branch, habits, manage, market, practice, synergy
