Leadership Role In The Perspective Of Cultural Differences

A United States company marketed their branded cooking oil in the South America with a Spanish name which meant in their language jackass oil

. An automobile, named as Nova was marketed in the Spanish and Italian countries, while Nova means, in their language does not go. You can imagine the peoples response towards these ill marketed products. The products were of international standard, and the intentions of the companies were not bad either, it was but the lack of understanding the language which created that undesirable results. These two brief examples are cited to highlight the importance of understanding cultural differences between different countries.

Todays world is the world of globalization. The leadership and management of a company before launching their products to other regions which are of different culture must know the essentials of their culture, values, norms and ideologies, so that they may not offend unintentionally and unwittingly their targeted and potential customers, else this may play a havoc to their business. You can see a cluster of very interesting stories of cultural blunders whose political and economical repercussions were far reaching, compiled by David Ricks (1999).

The leadership and management of a company can alleviate such unnecessary rifts and conflicts which can harm their business in certain cultures by having a study of the essentials of a particular culture before they Endeavour to launch their products and advertising campaigns. Especially, in the field of marketing the leadership and management must be very sensitive not to touch some taboo or undesirable area of that culture which can produce counter results and impede or reverse the growth of their business.

For a leader not only innate and acquired qualities are required but along with experience a leader must have at least a brief study of the essentials of the culture he or she has to work in for his or her company.

Another related aspect is the cultural challenges caste by the rival companies in the way to obstruct opponents business. A leader must be very careful and wise how to tackle such ticklish issue. In Pakistan, a rumor boomeranged that Lays potato chips had ingredient of pig in it. Pakistani culture is very sensitive to the matter of halal (Islamically lawful) and haram (Islamically unlawful). There experienced a significant reduction in the sale of the Lays. The challenge was well taken up by the leadership of the company. They hired a well known public figure, a former singer turned devote Muslim, showing him eating Lays chips and convincing the people that there is no such ingredients in it which may break Islamic code of eating. Within a week the sale returned to its normal. The Leadership of Lays could reverted so successfully by understanding the culture that how they can convince the people just showing the glimpse of that public figure having Lays instead of presenting scientific proofs of their chips as Halal! This is what the modern leadership needs to have their focus on.

by: Anna Williams

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