Participating in international market competition requires cross-cultural awareness. The rapid development of globalization has changed production and consumption, as well as working methods and lifestyles. “The influence of globalization is everywhere. Nothing, and no one can be immune to its influence, whether you like it or not, and whether that kind of influence is positive or negative for you.” In business management activities, Liu Lianzhang, Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from Beijing Foreign Studies University, said that market globalization makes market competition transcend national boundaries, intellectual globalization makes talents and management experience transcend national boundaries, and technological globalization makes technological innovation, dissemination and utilization transcend national boundaries and resources Globalization makes the collection and use of resources transcend national boundaries.
Enterprises going abroad, expanding overseas or operating transnationally is a kind of cross-cultural communication, and cross-cultural awareness is a compulsory course for enterprises to integrate and participate in the process of globalization. Many companies fail to do their cross-cultural homework when they go global, which leads to unsuccessful overseas travel. For example, Liu Lianzhang said that Crest toothpaste “anti-cavities” is not the first condition for Mexicans to choose toothpaste. Colgate’s product name in France is CUE, which means butt in the local language. Pansy clothing means “mother cannon” in the United States. Pepsi uses light blue in its sales equipment in Southeast Asia, which is associated with death in Southeast Asia.
It is also critical to grasp global standards and regional differences. Liu Lianzhang said that McDonald’s provides standardized management models and standardized menus all over the world, but it still needs to change its product forms and service methods according to the local cultural background to adapt to the tastes and customs of local consumers. In Brazil, McDonald’s serves a berry-based beverage; in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, it serves a fruit-based cheese; it serves lamb pie in Australia, Chinese breakfast and rice in China, and no beef burger in India. .
In addition, cross-cultural management is also very important. It is understood that cross-cultural enterprise management is to adopt an inclusive management method for the culture of the country where the subsidiary is located in the global operation, overcome any conflicts of heterogeneous culture under cross-cultural conditions, and create a unique corporate culture based on this. Thereby forming an effective management process. Its purpose is to design practical organizational structures and management mechanisms in different forms of cultural atmospheres, to find corporate goals beyond cultural conflicts in the management process, so as to maintain the common code of conduct for employees with different cultural backgrounds, so as to maximize Control and utilize the potential and value of the enterprise.
Liu Lianzhang emphasized that only through successful cross-cultural management of a globalized company can the company’s operations run smoothly, its competitiveness can be enhanced, and its market share can be expanded. Practice includes cross-cultural international cooperation (international business negotiation, bidding, procurement, outsourcing), cross-cultural product development (product localization), cross-cultural market expansion (advertising, marketing), and cross-cultural management team (communication) ,Cooperation).
When giving corporate gifts, we also need to be wary of cultural taboos. Liu Lianzhang said that different countries have many taboos on gift numbers, colors, patterns, etc. For example, Japan and North Korea have taboos on the word “4”, and regard “4” as a number that indicates bad luck; and for 9, 7, 5, The odd numbers of grade 3 and the numbers of grade 108 are quite popular, especially for “9” and multiples of “9” (but Japanese do not like 9). Arabs taboo animal designs, especially pigs and other designs, while Japanese taboos foxes and badgers, and Chinese taboos giving clocks.
With the acceleration of the global economic integration process,Participating in international market competition requires cross-cultural awareness. The development of multinational companies, how to achieve modern management in different countries and different cultural environments has become a topic of great attention. Liu Lianzhang suggested that companies conduct cross-cultural communication training for management teams and employees, enhance cross-cultural awareness, enrich cross-cultural knowledge, and improve cross-cultural management and management capabilities; hire professional cross-cultural communication expert consultants to provide international or transnational operations advisory.
