A "Global Perspective" to make you smile

Having a global mindset and being willing to embrace cultures different to one's own go hand in hand. Take a look at this cockatoo's take on embracing a culture different to his own. Tell me if it doesn't make you smile!
My company does not train dancing cockatoos, but we do coach executives and teams on crossing cultures!

Innovation, characteristic of a global mindset

As I write, I am waiting for the UPS man in his brown truck to show up soon. I am looking forward to receiving a package of new software that I ordered a few days ago. Using the UPS tracking site, I know everywhere my package has been on its long trip from California.

Sometimes we think of innovation in terms of breakthrough designs like Apple’s iPod and iPhone. But some of the best business innovations involve seeing new ways to serve customers with resources that are already there. While we need a global perspective to scout the world for new ideas, sometimes the best solutions may be right under our noses.

Consider the case of UPS. They used to rely on human engineering rather than employing extensive technology. In the old scheme of things, it cost $2 per call to track packages using an 800 number. In December 2006, they handled 130 million package tracking requests online at a cost of 1 cent each! UPS zeroed in on a basic capability of the Web - the ability to track packages from sender to receiver online. Their innovation allows them to provide better service at a much lower cost. The value added for the customer is that a scheduled delivery can be intercepted and re-routed if the customer so desires. Plus, the customer knows exactly where the package is during the delivery process.

Who exactly figured out the new system at UPS? I don’t know. But my guess is that it came from an individual or team that was thinking “outside of the box”, one of the characteristics of using a “global mindset”.

Keogh & Associates Consulting , LLC has many services to help your company compete by developing a global mindset.

An interesting story in today's business news says Taco Bell is opening restaurants in Mexico. By changing the branding strategy – “Taco Bell is something else” – the company will attempt to distance itself from comparison to Mexico's taquerias. Taquerias sell traditional corn tortillas stuffed with an endless variety of fillings, from spicy beef to corn fungus and cow eyes. Taco Bell plans on selling the same menu items as in the United States. It's like bringing ice to the Arctic,” complained pop culture historian Carlos Monsivais.

But because Taco Bell's version of “Mexican food” is so unrecognizable to Mexicans, it is being promoted there as American fast food. That's a change, since Taco Bell uses Mexican themes in the US to sell how “authentically Mexican” it is.
One of the company’s many slogans will work in both countries — “Make a run for the border.”

“Taco Bell wants to take advantage of the perception that if something comes from the United States, it tastes better, that a country that has been Americanized is willing to Americanize food that is central to its cuisine,” Carlos Monsivais said. “It is an absurd idea, and given that it's so absurd, it may just be successful in upper-class areas.”

Carlos Monsiváis is Mexico's leading cultural critic, and Mexico City's greatest living chronicler. He has written extensively and in evocative journalistic detail about Mexican history, culture and politics. He was born May 4, 1938, in Mexico City, and studied philosophy, economics and literature at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

While there is a multitude of Starbucks outlets in Mexico, they are mainly in wealthier neighborhoods. Taco Bell is aiming at a different demographic – opening in the solidly middle-class Monterrey suburb of Apodaca, an area where residents may not have traveled to the United States.

“We want to appeal to consumers who haven't tried Taco Bell, for whom this would be their first experience with Taco Bell,” said Javier Rancano, the company's director in Mexico.

While some "defenders" of Mexican culture see the chain's re-entry to Mexico as a crowning insult to a society already overrun by U.S. chains from Starbucks and Subway to Kentucky Fried Chicken, I applaud the initiative because is shows that Yum Brands Inc., the owner of the Taco Bell franchise is operating with a global mindset and is willing to cross cultures.

Manging ambiguity

Growing multinationals, whether they are based in the United States, India or elsewhere, all face a common problem: developing leaders who can manage global enterprises and take advantage of strategic opportunities. But do global leaders require a set of skills entirely different from those needed by their domestic counterparts? Yes they do!

Global Leaders need to develop is a consistent set of attitudes. This set includes curiosity, flexibility, willing to take risks, tolerance for ambiguity, open-mindedness, non-judgmental, openness to change, integrity, and optimism.

The reason that a Global Leader needs special characteristics is because doing business globally is fraught with uncertainty. This sense of never being fully "certain", is amplified by cultural differences. Of the characteristics that I have just mentioned, I think that the ability to tolerate ambiguity is vital.

In order to be able to develop tolerance for ambiguity Global Leaders need to "learn how to learn" in new situations. This critical skill is less valued in a purely "domestic" environment. A Global Leader has to be able to function successfully in new and unfamiliar situations and must know how to integrate this new understanding with existing skills and knowledge.

The Global Leader knows that he or she does not have al the answers. But the Global Leader knows how to find the answers, leveraging the knowledge of his collaborators. Line managers are the ones who most especially need to be attuned to learning to learn across different cultual environments

Different skills are needed for CEOs and top managers vs. line managers. It comes down to a difference between corporate strategy and business strategy. The leadership at the top is more responsible for managing the portfolio and doing due diligence, and for weighing whether it is better to acquire a firm or develop a strategic alliance. The line managers in businesses or SBUs are concerned with how to compete, how to overcome cultural differences and respond to local tastes, and how to integrate key functions or processes within the business to achieve local success.

Keogh & Associates Consulting , LLC has many services to help your company compete by developing a global mindset.

A Global Mindset creates business opportunites

A comment by Dr. Cindy Corritore at Creighton University, relative to "Global Mindset", suggests a link between having a global mindset with the ability to innovate as a global entrepreneur. In the United States, the manufacturing sector is hard put to compete with other international competition. It costs us too much. This means that in order to be competitive in global markets we have to figure out new areas to be creative and to innovate. Entrepreneurs in India have this well figured out and they profit by providing low cost manufacturing and service centers. In order to do this they had to be thinking “globally”, they were aware of what was going on in our world. Their mindset was that of a “global entrepreneur”

The Japanese had already showed us how to make money by fine-tuning and improving products that they did not invent. I recently read an idea on how to make lots of money, not by launching a brand-new product or service but rather by adapting and improving a service or process that already exists.

An example is a company in Utah called “reminderband.com” They jumped on the “livestrong” wristband craze started by Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. Prior to their innovation, the silicone wristband industry was driven by bulk orders of 10,000 or more bands which took weeks to manufacture and ship. Reminderband saw a niche in the custom wristband market that they could exploit if they could develop a way to cost effectively produce low quantities of custom silicone wristbands. Thanks to their ability to think globally, through their contacts they located a factory in Hong Kong to produce custom bands at a much lower cost. The company has prospered and is now known for delivering an excellent custom-made product to the customer’s doorstep in just days. Customers can order as few as 10 bands and have them in a matter of days. This is a good example of how the ability to think globally produces profits and keeps American companies in business.

Keogh & Associates Consulting , LLC has many services to help your company compete by developing a global mindset.

A Global Mindset needs "Global" words

My title may be a little misleading - but not by much. In order to convey our ideas in the global workplace, we need to be able to communicate in more than one language. Have you noticed the Google translation buttons to the right of the column on this blog, with my posts (just below my goofy photograph? If you cut and paste a few sentences from a post, the electronic translator will - most times - deliver an instantaneous and fairly acceptable translation! Of course you can use these translators to read and to publish your comments on foreign language web-sites and blogs.

If you are at all like me, you will often run in to technical business words that you may find difficult to translate to other languages because they are often not found in commercial dictionaries. The Human Resources profession uses many such technical terms. I've just discovered a pretty neat web site, the "first European Human Resources lexicon". It is hosted by ADP a leading provider of Human Resources outsourcing in Europe. I think you will find it very useful when you manage terms like "return on investment", "human resources policy" or "relocation allowance" . If you check my web-site on services and keynote presentations related to human capital, you'll see that I write in English and Spanish on topics related to cross-cultural training, multicultural teams and emotional intelligence. The human resources lexicon provided by ADP should make my task easier and hopefully do a better job of translating technical terms on the Spanish language version of our site.

Is Culture Limited to Humans?

			Non-human culture? This orangutan mother is using a specially prepared stick to "fish out" food from a crevice. She learned this skill and is now teaching it to her child who is hanging on her shoulder and intently watching.

Here is an interesting perspective from Dr. Dennis O' Neill at the Behavioral sciences Department, Palomar College, San Marcos, California:
"There is a difference of opinion in the behavioral sciences about whether or not we are the only animal that creates and uses culture. The answer to this question depends on how narrow culture is defined. If it is used broadly to refer to a complex of learned behavior patterns, then it is clear that we are not alone in creating and using culture. Many other animal species teach their young what they themselves learned in order to survive. This is especially true of the chimpanzees and other relatively intelligent apes and monkeys. Wild chimpanzee mothers typically teach their children about several hundred food and medicinal plants. Their children also have to learn about the dominance hierarchy and the social rules within their communities. As males become teenagers, they acquire hunting skills from adults. Females have to learn how to nurse and care for their babies. Chimpanzees even have to learn such basic skills as how to perform sexual intercourse. This knowledge is not hardwired into their brains at birth. They are all learned patterns of behavior just as they are for humans".

There you have it! Meanwhile, check Keogh & Associates Consulting, LLC for more on culture related topics.