From the course: International Marketing Foundations

The importance of company culture and values

From the course: International Marketing Foundations

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The importance of company culture and values

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- One big mistake companies can make when entering new countries is assuming that what matters to your company is also important to or valued by the potential customers in this new market. Each company has its own personality that's constructed of those things valued by the founders usually and then carried through the products, services, policies, decisions, and actions taken by the employees. All this rolls into what is commonly referred to as the company culture. Some companies take the time to write down their values and mission, others publish a set of operating principles or some other document that guides their employees. It's very important that you understand the culture of your company when thinking about expanding into new geographies. The reason is there are some countries where the government, people, and culture are going to be very closely aligned with what matters to your company. And there are others where what matters most to your company may be in direct conflict with the predominant culture in another region of the world. This isn't to say that you can't expand internationally if you don't have a written description of your company's culture, but if you don't have something already documented to help guide your way, I'd suggest you take some time to capture a few guiding principles. We can do this by gathering some leaders within your organization and documenting the conversation in a basic table. A good way to do this is to create a few columns. One column can be entitled what we value or what's important to us. Under this heading, capture the things important to your company, areas such as how you view your customers, how employees are treated, how conflicts are resolved, how priorities are set, can be good thought starters to capture here. Then, create a second column entitled where we draw the line. Under this heading, note some points that would be out of character for your company. Examples here may include using lower quality components to improve margins. In reality, your company culture may not mesh with the policies and politics in every country, that is okay. You just need to acknowledge this and ensure your organization is aligned. Doing this exercise will help you better understand what's important to your company and help you think about how to export your culture into a new geography.

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