In: Operations Management
Consider the two "when in Rome" sayings that have been applied to conducting business abroad: "when in Rome, do as you would at home" and "when in Rome, do as the Romans do." Write your own version of these sayings to describe how MNCs generally should conduct business in countries with different cultures and value systems, taking into account the issues discussed in this section. Explain your view.
My version of the given sayings will be “ When in Rome, observe what the Romans do and integrate the same with what you do at home”. This saying will be quite perfect for companies which do business in another country, having considerable cultural difference. For a company to be successful in a new market, the company must identify and respect the culture of the new market and adapt its business strategy to suit the new market. The company must never offend the culture and value system of the new country. Instead the company needs to find an alignment between the two cultures – the home and host culture, so as to effectively base the business in the new market.
If the cultural compatibility of the companies is close to zero, then the business in the new market will not be successful. However if the company succeeds in establishing an alignment between the two, conducting business in the new country will be fairly easy.