{"id":176,"date":"2025-01-29T11:00:19","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T11:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.octagona.co\/blog\/?p=176"},"modified":"2025-07-01T08:25:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T08:25:23","slug":"beyond-numbers-local-culture-in-global-business-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/octagona.co\/blog\/beyond-numbers-local-culture-in-global-business-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond Numbers: Local Culture in Global  Business Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How many times have companies failed because they failed to take the culture, habits or core values of their target markets into account? As professionals\u00a0working in the area of international business, we understand how logic and\u00a0numbers are not enough to make a foolproof strategy. The cases of Gillette\u2019s initial\u00a0failure in India or Starbucks\u2019 slow market penetration in Italy are no one-time\u00a0episodes. What had happened?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Gillette\u2019s initial strategy was based on the sale of its premium multi-blade razor, a globally accepted product manufactured by a strong player in its industry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>However, the strategy failed to account for the local habits of its target audiences in India \u2013 preference for single blades \u2013 as well as infrastructural limitations &#8211; limited access to running water &#8211; and a culture centered on barber shops.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Once the strategy was localized, with products and messaging adapted to local needs, Gillette succeeded.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Even more strongly, Starbucks is still struggling in Italy, and as an Italian, I can\u00a0fully understand why:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Italy has a strong coffee culture where the quality of the beans, tradition, and the direct relationship between customers and local coffee shops matter. Even the look and the cup in which coffee is served matter.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Starbucks, with its American-style offerings, is seen as a distant player, whose brand has little to do with Italy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>To adapt, Starbucks launched a flagship \u2018reserve\u2019 store in Milan, the only one in the world for the company, with premium features and locally sourced materials to appeal to Italian sensibilities. (While still not a Starbucks regular client, I admit in my next trip to Milan I would at least be curious to pay a visit to this store).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Both cases are textbook examples of what American Nobel Prize economist and\u00a0psychologist, Herbert Simon, defined as bounded rationality. Our decision-making\u00a0abilities have limitations, information is incomplete, there are time or budget\u00a0constraints and the capability to process the information received is biased by our\u00a0own worldview. Approaching international markets always poses inherent\u00a0challenges and the risks of falling into a bounded rationality trap are common.\u00a0Working alongside consulting experts strongly mitigates such risks and helps\u00a0organizations not just plan but make the most of their international venture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How many times have companies failed because they failed to take the culture, habits or core values of their target markets into account? As professionals\u00a0working [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/octagona.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/octagona.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/octagona.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/octagona.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/octagona.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/octagona.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":177,"href":"https:\/\/octagona.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions\/177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/octagona.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/octagona.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/octagona.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/octagona.co\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}