Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Is Culture a Liability?

A study of culture give rise of entity or behaviour a given group. This is in line with the definition which is simplified as set of values, practices, behaviors, attitudes, believes etc. - which is accepted collectively by group of people. This has become identity belong to a group. In return, one has sense of belonging to a given group. Don’t tell me you are not proud belonging to single ethnic group.
With so many groups in existence one can find many cultures in different geographical areas. If one have to cross to another group, one has to adapt or assimilate to the culture of a new group in order to be accepted. Such action is called acculturation.

Imagine there are nearly 200 countries all over the world which mean 200 national cultures. Business can be interpreted as transactions which in reality can be accomplish if customer trust you and they are willing to accept you be part of their family if you practice their culture or, at least respect their culture (but in return they accept you but of course not fully).

To anthropologist the existence of various cultures mean an opportunity to explore and understand the beauties of variety of cultures. Heh! quite interesting, don’t you? But to international business this can be a nightmare. Imagine you are dealing with various nationalities, which mean various cultures. Since culture is such a complex entity due to existence of subcultures within national cultures, further you have to understand there are many countries you have to deal with; don’t you think it is a great risk? Think about how you can adjust to different culture – learning their language, understand their religion, be part of their ritual and many more.

On the other hand, think if you can master various cultures – there are a lot of business opportunity that you can grab. In addition to this, in the era of globalization your firm can easily become internationalize – just create a web page and there you go you are exposing your firm to international market – more market opportunities.

Well, I'll  throw out this issue for you to think about.
Regards
Noordin Yahaya

14 comments:

  1. in our opinion, it's true that culture can be a significant barrier to understand buyer and seller. different cultures have different core beliefs and values. and this effects cross-cultural communication and international business across the board through different attitudes, reactions and expectations. what is the right things to do in a culture may not be necessary a good thing in another culture.


    we need to create cultural awareness to create an awareness of each others cultural practices. reading and discussing about other cultures would surely assist in building cultural awareness.when we are aware with others culture, it will help us to understand them more. so, it's easy for easy to fulfill their needs and wants based on their lifestyle and behavior.

    good understanding in their culture will result in how our business will be conducted..

    by: S.E.A.(BBAF2C)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Salam,

    Sir,

    After we read about this article we agree with this topic.In our opinion, all of the country have their own culture. Everybody needs to respect everyone culture. In International Business,the organization needs to know the culture of the country that their needs to make a business.

    Culture is a liability to that company,if they do not have any knowledge about another countries' culture they will faced risk.For example KFC company needs to open new branch in China, they should know taste and culture of that country.Chinese people are not eat spicy food so KFC consider about this and not produce any spicy food.If KFC not consider about this, they will suffer for loss and its become a liability to the KFC Holdings.

    GROUP:LUF(BBAF 2D)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Culture may have both positive and negative effect. Organizational culture is different from world cultures, histories, languages, beliefs, and foods, which are the source of our identity. Our personal culture affects how we marry, how we raise our children, how we celebrate events, and how we mourn death.

    Entering in the country is the most main and difficult decision for the company. The company has to do research the country with its traditions, habbits and the history.
    At first you must understand the population. What they like: from their culture, and also depends what type of company is entering in the country for example - food company - in some countries there are some types of food that cound not and must not be imported in this or that country.

    We rhink thar in the organizational and business literature that had occured cultural differences, including language, create barriers to organizational effectiveness. Examples of this can be found in one of the larger German-American manufacturing organizations created by a merger and then dissolved. It is interesting and useful to consider which individual and cultural factors have the most significant impact on intercultural organizational success or failure.

    -updated by group TRIO-

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  4. salam~
    in our opinion, we think that culture really influence in business. this is because people can take advantages to explore the culture in new place to expand new markets. like you say above, the existence of various cultures mean an opportunity to explore and understand the beauties of variety of cultures. some people like to try new things that out of their culture.
    as we had learn, to adopt business to some country we must make some anlysis to their social, language,religion, and government involvment. this is because we must minimizes the culture risk.
    like Pizza Hut, they made pizza with satay in their menu because they know Malaysian like to eat satay. the try to attract more customers to buy their products.

    GROUP : ZAZA ( BBAF2C)

    ReplyDelete
  5. salam~
    in our opinion, we think that culture really influence in business. this is because people can take advantages to explore the culture in new place to expand new markets. like you say above, the existence of various cultures mean an opportunity to explore and understand the beauties of variety of cultures. some people like to try new things that out of their culture.
    as we had learn, to adopt business to some country we must make some anlysis to their social, language,religion, and government involvment. this is because we must minimizes the culture risk.
    like Pizza Hut, they made pizza with satay in their menu because they know Malaysian like to eat satay. the try to attract more customers to buy their products.

    GROUP : ZAZA ( BBAF2C)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Assalamualaikum...
    Sir,
    we agreed that culture is a liability to the company who wants to operate their business at international level. to launch a business at the international level, we must think about culture in the country. This allows them to accept the presence of business conducted by companies outside. As example, if companies from outside want to open a new business in Malaysia, they must respect the culture of doing business based on Malaysia's halal products. this is because Malaysia have majority Muslim population. if the company can respect the culture, the company will be received by Malaysian citizen.
    moreover, understanding foreign cultures is one of the advantages in doing business internationally. from the perspective of an individual, understand different cultures can foster relationships with one another. facilitate this we received by the local community and easy to communicate. from the perspective of business, by understanding their culture, business will get a trustworthy from the local community, businesses can compete with local companies, to expand business and earn higher profits.

    BBAF2C- teddygurl

    ReplyDelete
  7. After reading the part of culture explaination,i think that it is hard to understand from the culture perspective itself.Culture bring the wide meaning and also have been practiced by a various type of ethnic in all over the world.
    If we understand about the culture, it is actually sumthing that is interesting to learn. As u said sir,Imagine there are nearly 200 countries all over the world which mean 200 national cultures. For me, it is a challenge.
    In terms of business, take the risk and face the challenges is a part of business game. If we affraid to face the such type of risk and problem or liability, we cant run a business. Even the small type of business also has to face the problem. So i think, it is not a big deal for the huge business runner (worlwide), in face the culture problem and to find the suitable conclusion so that they will absorb the culture as part as their interesting plan in run their business, not as a liability.


    Group BBAF 2D (Guns n Rose)

    ReplyDelete
  8. salam..
    Prof..
    Culture is a change of phenomenon that has presumptions&fundamentals from their hunter-gathering and nomadic traditions to cultivation.In globalization many companies cannot afford to lose their theirs customers to competitors.So that to survive in a crowded marketplace they have to embark into internstional markerts but with very little experience and understanding of how the local markets work.Culture also can be refers to the collective deposit of knowledge,experience,beliefs,values,attitudes,meanings,concepts of the universe and material objects and possesions acquired by a groupof people in the course of generations through individual and groups.It is also a way of life of a group of people.The behaviours,believes,values and symbol that they accept generally without thinking about them and that are passed along by communications and imitation from one generationa to the next.

    Culture is a liability because culture is a sum total of the learned behaviour of a group of people that are generally considered to be the tradition of taht people and are transmitted from generation to generation.

    Culture also is an intergrated system of learn bahavioural patterns which re differentiating traits,says,does and makes encompassing its customs, religion, language, material artifacts and shared system of attitudes and feelings.its paramount to understand people which one's changrin is easier said that done..
    (GROUP RM 4.00 BBAF2D)

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  9. First of all, we agreed with Prof. Nordin describing a culture that refers to the lifestyle of a group of human being with regards to believes attitudes, behavior and etc. The culture gives an identity to the respective group. As such, every single element in the group plays a role to sustain the characteristics that has been created initially. The term culture is used in anthropology to refer to a complex system of values, beliefs and codes of conduct that are socially acquired. Cultural differences are what distinguish one society from another. Culture is the product of the unique human capacity to classify and encode experiences and pass on this acquired knowledge to others. This process of sharing and passing on a system of beliefs and knowledge is enculturation. Rituals, institutions, language, physical objects, and art act as the medium for this transfer of knowledge and values. According to anthropologists, culture is something uniquely human, considering that its requirements are distinctly human.

    A liability refers to anything that we are liable for. Taking into account a liability in the business would affect the increase of the assets simultaneously. What is the relationship between asset and liability? For sure, to operate the business organization needs an asset. For example, an organization applying a credit facilities as a capital from financial institution in order to make them capable run into the market. Without the money, it becomes a barrier for the organization to expand. Lets we look into the issue that we currently discuss here, my opinion culture is a liability instead of that it is also an asset. In the liability perspective, the elements of a group are liable on their culture. As for example given above, credit facilities used by the organization should be take care by that particular organization. It is similar with the culture which should be taken care of their respective elements.

    Conversely, assets in the organization are use for produce a product and making a profit. Relation between culture and asset is when we looking culture as a most valuable item for the respective group. Therefore, as part of the element for the group, we have to maintain and ensure our asset are used and kept in a good condition. Failing which, the asset could be ruined and would give a great bad impact to the organization and resulting a diminishing of the organization, for sure.

    As Malay, we are liable for our culture most of the time. Our life personally, culture also being a great valuable item and for our society as a whole. Therefore, to bring up our ethnic standing in the eyes of the world, we have to crack our head thinking on how to make sure our culture are used and maintain properly and try to spread our good culture to the world.

    (GROUP : BACHELOR)(BBAF 2C)

    ReplyDelete
  10. First of all, we agreed with Prof. Nordin describing a culture that refers to the lifestyle of a group of human being with regards to believes attitudes, behavior and etc. The culture gives an identity to the respective group. As such, every single element in the group plays a role to sustain the characteristics that has been created initially. The term culture is used in anthropology to refer to a complex system of values, beliefs and codes of conduct that are socially acquired. Cultural differences are what distinguish one society from another. Culture is the product of the unique human capacity to classify and encode experiences and pass on this acquired knowledge to others. This process of sharing and passing on a system of beliefs and knowledge is enculturation. Rituals, institutions, language, physical objects, and art act as the medium for this transfer of knowledge and values. According to anthropologists, culture is something uniquely human, considering that its requirements are distinctly human.

    A liability refers to anything that we are liable for. Taking into account a liability in the business would affect the increase of the assets simultaneously. What is the relationship between asset and liability? For sure, to operate the business organization needs an asset. For example, an organization applying a credit facilities as a capital from financial institution in order to make them capable run into the market. Without the money, it becomes a barrier for the organization to expand. Lets we look into the issue that we currently discuss here, my opinion culture is a liability instead of that it is also an asset. In the liability perspective, the elements of a group are liable on their culture. As for example given above, credit facilities used by the organization should be take care by that particular organization. It is similar with the culture which should be taken care of their respective elements.

    Conversely, assets in the organization are use for produce a product and making a profit. Relation between culture and asset is when we looking culture as a most valuable item for the respective group. Therefore, as part of the element for the group, we have to maintain and ensure our asset are used and kept in a good condition. Failing which, the asset could be ruined and would give a great bad impact to the organization and resulting a diminishing of the organization, for sure.

    As Malay, we are liable for our culture most of the time. Our life personally, culture also being a great valuable item and for our society as a whole. Therefore, to bring up our ethnic standing in the eyes of the world, we have to crack our head thinking on how to make sure our culture are used and maintain properly and try to spread our good culture to the world.

    FROM BBAF 2C (GROUP : BACHELOR)

    ReplyDelete
  11. this is true when we said that culture is a liability..why?in many reason it can be a liability especially to the company who want to be an international company..before we want to produce certain product,we need to know whether that product meet with their culture or not..it is very important to the company to study about the culture of the country which they want to market their product because when we do not know about their culture,they will think we are rude and not respect their culture..at the end,they will not allow our products or services..it is same when they want make a business in our country,Malaysia...they need to know our culture and regulation...if they breach one of them,we will think they being rude..at the same time we will boycott their product...for example,campaign to boycott product from certain country such as McDonald,Coca Cola,Johnson & Johnson and many more..it is clearly show that,it is main part to be consider when making international business...

    ReplyDelete
  12. Assalamualaikum
    Sir,
    In our opinion regarding to this topic, we are not actually agreed that culture is a liability. It is because culture is a form of attitudes that are unique to differentiate between the communities. In one sides, we do find that culture is such a burden especially for the new investor or other company that are at first time to get into international business world. This is due on how they accept the culture of the surrounding. For example, the company from the west countries that wants to collaborate with the eastern countries where all of their ways of working environment are totally different from their common. This might be a tough task for them in doing a research to find the custom of those countries. On the other perspective, a culture is such an opportunity for foreign companies which are interested to merge the business. It can give benefits to the company that adapts the local custom into their business environment. It can be seen like the company is actually act as a local firm where it creates an opportunity to get the specialization in terms of the belief’s of the local people, opportunity to get the loans from local bank and lowering the cost of management. Therefore, in evaluating either culture is a liability or not, we must consider in many perspective because different perceptions may result in different views of the issues.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Assalamualaikum
    Sir,
    In our opinion regarding to this topic, we are not actually agreed that culture is a liability. It is because culture is a form of attitudes that are unique to differentiate between the communities. In one sides, we do find that culture is such a burden especially for the new investor or other company that are at first time to get into international business world. This is due on how they accept the culture of the surrounding. For example, the company from the west countries that wants to collaborate with the eastern countries where all of their ways of working environment are totally different from their common. This might be a tough task for them in doing a research to find the custom of those countries. On the other perspective, a culture is such an opportunity for foreign companies which are interested to merge the business. It can give benefits to the company that adapts the local custom into their business environment. It can be seen like the company is actually act as a local firm where it creates an opportunity to get the specialization in terms of the belief’s of the local people, opportunity to get the loans from local bank and lowering the cost of management. Therefore, in evaluating either culture is a liability or not, we must consider in many perspective because different perceptions may result in different views of the issues.

    ReplyDelete
  14. In our opinion, we are totally agreed about this issue that Culture is Liability. It is because Culture refers to the collective deposit of knowledge, experience, belief, values, and attitude and so on. In terms of International Business, it is also liability to the company that wants to make trade with other country.

    While doing business, if the company cannot adapt other culture of other countries, cultural risks will present itself due to emergence of difference expectations, misunderstanding, and miscommunication between a buyer and the seller. It is because every country has their own culture.

    So, there is no transaction between our company and other countries because lack of knowledge about other countries culture. As a conclusion, we can gain profit if our company can adapt other culture and automatically there is exist a good relationship between us.

    ReplyDelete