The purpose of this exercise is to identify elements in the culture of a foreign country that would impact the success of opening a business in that country and selling industrial machinery directly to customers.

Procedure

1. Select two clusters from Figure 13.1. Select one country from each cluster. Research and prepare a written report on your findings.
2. Table 13.1
3. Fortune's 2010 List of the Top Twenty Most Admired Companies
4. Rank Company
5. 1 Apple
6. 2 Google
7. 3 Berkshire Hathaway
8. 4 Johnson & Johnson
9. 5 Amazon.com
10. 6 Procter & Gamble
11. 7 Toyota Motor
12. 8 Goldman Sachs Group
13. 9 Walmart Stores
14. 10 Coca-Cola
15. 11 Microsoft
16. 12 Southwest Airline
17. 13 FedEx
18. 14 McDonald's
19. 15 IBM
20. 16 General Electric
21. 17 3M
22. 18 J.P. Morgan Chase
23. 19 Walt Disney
24. 20 Cisco Systems
25. Source: Fortune, March 22, 2010, p. 121

2. Gather information on the cultural problems you would face in opening a business in each country and selling your machinery (see following situation). Use the Inter- net to facilitate your research. Also, you are encouraged to interview foreign stu- dents and professors who have knowledge of your selected country.

3. After identifying the major cultural problems that your company will face, discuss how your firm can deal with these problems in order to be successful.

4. Note the cultural differences and similarities between the two countries selected. 5. What are your own aspirations about working overseas? Why or why not? What barriers would you face and how would you overcome them?

Situation

You are working for a firm that plans to open an overseas branch to sell its industrial machinery directly to customers in this foreign country. Your firm has never before directly sold its products outside the United States. You are to present your boss with a list of the major cultural barriers that must be surmounted if this sales effort is to be successful.