The global beats the hell out of the local! Or is it the other way round?

Introduction

I was born in Germany and in 1984 my parents decided to finally give in to my wish to
move from Germany to Serbia. I loved Serbia, or better Yugoslavia in those days, and
though I had been living in Germany for almost 13 years, I couldn’t fit in. And so we moved
to Vranje, my newly-found hometown in the deep South of Serbia.
The number of situations when I had to deal with issues concerning the clash of
two different ways of living, the German and the Serbian one, is infinite. Apart from the fact
that I was speaking Serbian in a way similar to Tarzan speaking English when he met
Jane in the jungle, I made people around me laugh on a regular basis! One particular
occasion was when I told my classmates that I would come to school on a bike! They were
rolling with laughter and I really couldn’t get why. Well it took me some time to figure it out.
First, in Germany children go to school either by bus or on a bike because
elementary school ends with the fourth grade and the next level of education is often
attended at a school several kilometres away from one’s home. The bike is a preferred
means of transport whenever the whether permits it. However, the streets in Germany
have lanes intended for bikers, every child has to undergo training and actually take
something like a driving test. We all had biker’s licences! Furthermore, every school has
facilities, a garage or some other kind of space, where the bikes are parked during school
time. There are even guards and your bike cannot be stolen!
I do not have to explain that riding a bicycle in Vranje in 1984 was a curiosity! Why?
Because there were only old-fashioned bicycles, those funny and clumsy black monsters!
When picturing me on a bike they probably imagined me (and I am very short, I have
always been short!) struggling with the huge black beast! Most of the streets in my town
were not paved! Another reason against a bike ride! Who needs the aggravation! Your
kidneys and every other organ in your body would be shaken up and probably misplaced
who knows where. Last but not least, the moment I would park my bike (everybody new it
had been bought in Germany), it would most certainly disappear instantly!
Of course it took me time to understand all that. Especially the last bit because in
Germany, the moment your bike is stolen, you go to the police to report it and they actually
find it because every bike has a registration!

1. What’s the big deal?

Even today it makes me wonder, who has educated whom? Fact is that I have
managed to fit in. I’ve become part of the puzzle. Have I made them accept me or have
they made me accept them? I say I am Serbian, but I feel as a multicultural person fluent
in three languages and belonging to at least three different cultures.
Now imagine yourself being a representative of “Ikea” in Japan! Or selling Serbian
“slivovitz” in an Arabic country! Or skis in Egypt! The adventure would be causing laughter
and disbelief similar to the experience explained above.
What every representative of the global in a local environment should ask is the
following: Is it possible to just introduce the global to the local and expect it to kick in or is
there more to it?

2. The global vs the local

For starters, the word ‘globe’, according to the seventh addition of the Oxford Advanced
Learner’s Dictionary is:

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1. [C] an object shaped like a ball with a map of the world on its surface, usually on a stand
so that it can be turned
2. the globe [sing.] the world (used especially to emphasize its size): tourists from every
corner of the globe
3. [C] a thing shaped like a ball
But the basic form, when subdued to derivation, renders the following list of words:
global, globally, globalise, globalisation, globetrotting, globetrotter, globule, globular,
glocalization. Furthermore, very important collocations are derived, such as global
competition, global corporation, global demand, global economy, global market, global
marketing, global view, global village, global warming. And, of course, the fancy ones
should not be forgotten: go global, think global, act global!
As opposed to this spread-all-over-the-world aspect implied by the word global, the
world local implies a space limited within the boundaries of one nation, country or
community. Along with this limited spatial aspect, the word local clearly indicates a
restricted market to be conquered by the global multinational company interested in it.
However, in order to be able to enter such a confined space, the global will have to
endure quite some adjustments.

3. The problem

Obviously the differences between the conflicting forces of global production and
distribution on the one hand, and strong local marketing on the other, have a huge effect
on multinational business. Furthermore, the impact of these forces on business cultures in
particular countries is enormous. What most often seems to be a problem is that the local
culture is unable to incorporate the global dimension into their own immediate surrounding.
What is irritating is that, on one hand, we (the locals) do not always like the
behaviour of the others (the globals) and, on the other; the others might not like our
behaviour! In both cases there is a problem because the trends in modern economy
clearly suggest the necessity to identify, acknowledge and accept the global dimension of
multinational companies so as to incorporate it into the local business environment. A
necessity of utter importance, and the answer to the problem, is adequate training in the
area of intercultural communicative skills to be implemented in international business.
The hot potato seems to be that the ever increasing global scale of world commerce
and the reaction against it – the commercial need to recognise the differences between
local markets, and the reaction of people to what they consider to be the monolithic nature
of multinational companies – bring about very complex paradoxes. Some of them are the
following:
1. To minimise costs, large companies need standardised production methods and
uniformed products, and to achieve large sales they need as big a market as
possible. But they also need appeal to a wide variety of different local markets
which, quite annoyingly, may be reluctant or otherwise hesitant to accept the
products.
2. Branding is a modern alternative to spreading business! Multinational companies
simply set out with the assumption that if their primary brand managed to crack a
particular local market than a derivative will most certainly do the same.
Unfortunately, more often this proves to be a dangerous misconception.
3. Sport sponsorships by multinationals are known to bring money to both the
sponsors and the sponsored sport icon! However, assuming that the sponsored
person comes from a poorly developed country, the constant bragging of a
multinational company by means of their logo on a national hero’s T-shirt may
provoke serious issues. Especially if a local brand, from the same range of
products, does not sell well.

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 4. Worldwide sports tournaments have been popular for ever and people, globally and
locally, love them. Yet there has been a tendency in the recent past to introduce
new kinds of tournaments on a local level with the aspiration to help it develop more
globally. The problem is the monopolistic character of the already existing
tournaments making it thus difficult to local enthusiasts to launch something maybe
equally interesting.
This list can go on forever. The point is that a certain kind of education based on
international concepts of multicultural diversity incorporated with the freedom of
individualism must precede any marketing strategy aimed at a new local market.
Especially if it is the kind of market characterised by deeply rooted national, ethnic,
religious and linguistic individualism.

4. The solution: Intercultural Communication Skills – a foundation for modern

marketing strategies

In the context of a multinational company, different cultures meet and they have to work
together to achieve the interest of the company – make profit! If the multicultural company
does not run like clockwork, there will be conflicts and eventually no profit. More
importantly, if such a multinational company wants to enter a new local market, they
should learn how to communicate with the locals on an intercultural level. Therefore, the
balance between the goal and the means in such a situation will be established if all the
employees develop five basic skills, all being part of an important, if not essential, aspect
of the ability to communicate in a local environment trying to be a member of the global.
Thus the five basic skills of intercultural communication are:
1. The skill to encode and decode messages coming from culturally different sources
– a necessary precondition is one mutual language which is most often considered
to be English in its most general form. This actually imposes the necessity of
language training in the local environment. A general assumption among today’s
multinational companies is that it is much cheaper to pay teachers in the local area
to organise courses than drag interpreters with them because they all have to race
against time and the faster the locals learn to understand the language of the
multinational company the better. Conversely, there are also arguments in favour of
the local language implying that maybe, at least some of the representative(s) of the
multinational company, should learn the language of the local community as it will
most certainly be considered a sign of good faith and respect. In terms of diplomacy
this may have a very pacifying effect in an otherwise prejudiced environment
concerning the identification of the English language with the domination of the
Anglophone culture.
2. The skill to identify, acknowledge, tolerate and accept people from different
cultures, which basically means the ability to surpass one’s own ethnocentrism, is
especially important in environments torn apart between the desire to finally
become part of the global market and the ever present dislike (even hatred) of
Anglophone cultures because of some issues from the past. There are many parts
in the world where the multinational is often identified with Anglo-American, and not
in a favourable sense. However, the issue of ethnocentrism has to be re-considered
on both sides involved in the story.
3. The skill to set goals of common interest which means to shift the level of
expectations from the global to the local. The local environment must be allowed to
participate in the process of setting goals so as to be convinced that they too will
have a piece of the cake.

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 4. The skill to see the purpose of communication in the need of both the global and the
local. This skill goes side by side with the previous one and a precondition is the
proper identification of needs on both sides.
5. The skill to formulate the content of communication in a way everybody will
understand so as to build a positive relationship towards others. On a basic level
this means that human beings associate to people who have similar likes, dislikes,
interests, tastes, etc. On the level of multinational companies in a local environment
this means exactly the same. In order to know which content to address, the
multinational company should be well-acquainted with the local environment, find
out everything they can about the aspirations and desires of the local community
and address them in an appropriate way. On one hand, this is respectful as it really
makes the local feel important. On the other hand, it is useful as the respect will
slowly be transformed into a mutual goal.
In one word, intercultural communication involves much more adjustment than regular
communication where the individual has to adapt his/ her own personality to that of the
group so as to be accepted by it. In intercultural communication, both the global and the
local interlocutors have to accept the attitudes, interests, goals and aims of the other and
at the same time adjust their own attitudes, interests, goals and aims so as to make them
acceptable to the other.

Conclusion

It goes without saying that communication is a two-way road. Representatives of the global
in the local environment will be interlocutors engaged in intercultural communication who
will come to terms with each other only if they learn how to identify, acknowledge, tolerate
and accept the other. This may sound like mission impossible especially if the dynamics of
the modern world markets are taken into consideration. Nevertheless, successful
introduction of the global into the local, with as few bruises as possible, preferably with
none whatsoever, may be accomplished if they meet halfway. The modern course in
intercultural communication will probably be guided by the ability to co-operate and co-
exist with a huge number of various local cultures on the global market.