MondayNote Spelling Out Some Truths
July 6, 2010
Many Americans, confident of their high school French, confront French culture in a food crisis. Perhaps it is the cloak of invisibility that shrouds the American in a cafe opposite Opéra? Maybe it is the two scoop ice cream confrontation? Whatever it is, Americans find themselves baffled by the French. French American business relations are often as confusing. The French executives explain how the deal will work. The Americans look confused. The French shrug, sometimes offering a little smile, and walk away. The Americans look like they have lost their iPhone or car keys. The software or business method that could have helped the US outfit has walked out the door. Too much of a hill to climb.
If you think you understand the French or Europeans in general, you will not benefit so much from “The Poison of Arrogance.” That’s too bad. I think the write up is accurate and underscores a potentially fatal weakness in how American companies and executives deal with other cultures.
I am the quintessential ugly American. From my clumsy interaction with Brazilians when I was in grade school to my inept behavior in dozens of countries, I have no illusions about myself. I am putting myself in the barrel that M. Filloux has assembled from the facts and observations in his argument. The question is, “Will others take heed?”
I don’t want to summarize the well reasoned article. I do want to highlight one key passage and offer a comment. First, consider this passage:
Many American companies suffer from vision impairment: they consider the Rest of the World as an aggregation of second-class people. What I called in a previous column the “Burundi Syndrome”, leads to zero delegation of authority. This leads to terrible results. Each attempt from a European subsidiary to adapt company policies to its local market conditions hits a wall of a soviet-like centralization, this time epicentered on the West Coast of the United States.
As painful as it is to accept criticism, I agree with this statement. You can consult the original write up to read about the companies that M. Filloux uses as examples. You will know them well. I have worked for some of them as you may have.
My observation is simple: Change is needed. Companies that evoke regulatory officials’ ire are doing something to create a fire storm, not put the fire storm out. Companies that tell other countries how to run their rail roads are not going to get first class tickets under any circumstances.
My concern is that time has run out for some companies, and I think the push back and confrontations are likely to escalate. Unnecessary and perhaps unfixable.
Stephen E Arnold, July 6, 2010
Freebie
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
