萧 然 渡

Culture generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance.

It is indeed true that human beings are born to be the same, which means they are equal. No one is superior to the other. But human beings also foster to be different, their characters are cultivated differently by different culture and environments. For instance, Germans are known to be self-disciplined and strict, while Italians the opposite, they more or less enjoy more freedom in their daily life or even business. Because of this, they may be late when there’s a meeting while the German would like to be punctual. The speed of life and work in Europe is much slower than that in America, although they are all “western developed countries”.

Culture is such kind of thing that sticks to a human being’s soul forever, which unveils itself in certain kinds of condition, such as custom, the way people behave and their values. Hence, culture affects human beings, especially in some typical areas such as business. For example, cultured conflict expresses itself severely when it comes to international business issues such as multinational companies, Joint Ventures, Co operations or Mergers, etc.

So, how does culture impact itself on business?

First and foremost, culture creates entry barriers. No matter how successful a company is in its domestic market, it may confront lots of difficulties when entering a foreign market.
Consumers have different behaviors of buying goods, for instance, the Chinese are price sensitive while the Japanese consider more about the quality. 
The employees may have different opinion on the operation of the company. Things may get worse when top managers are domestic while staff are local, for they simply can’t understand each other’s style. When Wal-mart first entered the German market, German middle managers were indignant as the top managers only spoke English. At the same time, the way the retailers behave in Germany is not the same as that of America. Germans don’t like big supermarkets with everything inside. Thus, losing so much money in Germany, Wal-mart decided to exit this big retailing market.

Secondly, the style of management and the “potential rules” appear to be greatly different in different countries. The culture of the North Atlantic is more or less individualist, status achieved because of personal ability and knowledge. Managers here are proactive and independent. They respect people because of their superior of ability, instead of their long stay in the company.
But things become different in collectivism countries. In Japan and Italy’s traditional companies, status can only be achieved by seniority. In these countries, top managers are most of the time full of experiences but lack of innovation. Hierarchy issues are very serious, decisions making is hard and take a long time.
Besides, the potential rules some time plays an important role in management. Such as the complex “Guanxi” (relationship with authority, government department, etc.) in China, which sophisticate the management style for managers from other countries.
In addition, communication among colleagues may become harder and harder. Different language and values may partly response for this barrier. Failure in good communication will lead to low efficiency and low performance. Business strategy is not easy to follow and business goal is hence hard to achieve.

Globalization is a doomed destination of every large company who wants to extend itself and take as much market share as possible. But not all the multinational companies are successful, besides restriction from foreign government and environment, different cultural background may slow down the speed of globalization, or even cease the process. That’s why it important to consider cultural issue as one part of the business operation.