T3. Blending & culture

OK… so so far we have discovered that culture is a variable in international marketing – but where exactly does it ‘fit’ in the grand (organisational) scheme of things?

• Clearly, culture is not the primary focus of businesses … so what IS its focus?
• What are they seeking to do and where does/should culture fit in the grand scheme of organisational things?

Let’s take a look….. here is a conceptual view of what all organisations are trying to do all the time.  In fact it is not just commercial corporations (Businesses) but, non-profits and the public sector. Even more it could even be held to apply to something like a city, say Paris as a tourist destination.   We are all trying to do this whether we represent it this way or not…. it is effectively a combination of SWOT (on the internal side) and PESTLE/STEEPL analyses (on the external side).

Please be aware that the representation below is an attempt to provide a simplified ‘picture’ of what organisations are trying to do (and to some extent an attempt at explaining the ‘how’ thereof) – but clearly simplified conceptualisations have upsides and downsides:

• UP: it helps bring everything together in a way that is understandable
• DOWN: inevitably it has shortcomings:
  • organisations could or perhaps should be doing these things … but it doesn’t mean they are!
  • life (and business) is more complex than that.  Take the external STEEPL side:
    • is Society really separate from Technology?
    • is Economy really separate from Politics and regulation?
    • is there a ‘domino’ effect working here or does each and every ‘environment’ overlay all the others?

Blending the Business Model

So, you tell me –

Where in this representation (it isn’t really a model): might the issue of culture raise its head?

• why will it?
• what are the implications?
  • where are the dangers
  • how might companies manage this cultural / inter-cultural dimension?