How Does Culture Influence Your Company's Strategic Planning?

When it comes to strategic planning and implementation, culture can play a large role in many aspects of the planning process. In particular, mission/vision statements, time horizons, and marketing are key areas that can be greatly influenced by culture.

A company’s mission statement is supposed to reflect the overall goals of the company, and should clearly state what the company is trying to achieve. These large objectives can be heavily influenced by the culture in which the company is a part. For example, if an oil company is part of a culture that values environmentalism, its mission statement will likely reflect the oil company’s commitment to preserving, rather than destroying, the environment while at the same time providing its customers with the oil they need. However, if this oil company is situated within a culture that cares more about progress and price than the environment, the company’s mission statement may not mention the environment at all, but instead emphasize its commitment to providing customers with the cheapest oil possible.

During the process of goal setting, time horizons can vary greatly depending upon the overall culture’s perception of time. For example, one company may define a “short term” goal as 6 months, whereas another culture may say “short term” and mean five years. How a culture perceives time, and what the cultural expectations of “timeliness” are will undoubtedly have an influence on how business goals are made and implemented. Time perceptions vary so much that in Belgium, for example, it is acceptable to say that something will be ready in a “little hour,” but in the US this expression would not make sense. This expression illustrates that in Belgium an “hour” is a rather flexible notion, whereas in the US an “hour” is a very exact idea.

Marketing is perhaps the aspect of business that is most heavily influenced by culture since it deals directly with the public and is trying to appeal to their particular cultural sensibilities. There are countless examples of products doing well in one country and failing in another simply because the packaging colors symbolize different things in different cultures (Ball et al., 2006, 485). When ever a company decides to enter a market, even domestically, it is paramount that market research be conducted to assess the cultural mores of the targeted market.

Companies also need to realize that “culture” is not static, and it does not apply to everyone within a certain country or demographic. In order for one’s marketing efforts to be successful the sub-culture of a particular market must also be assessed if it is to those that the product or service is geared to. A very well known example of this would be marketing to the new “tween-agers,” those in pre-adolescence, who have their own sub-culture that is different from both the larger adult and teenage cultures.

It is impossible for culture not to impact domestic business operations since every country has its own culture and every company is situated within a country. Because we are so immersed in our own cultures as individuals, it is easy to forget that how we conduct business and make plans is just as culturally bound as how others conduct business in their own countries. Our domestic culture dictates how our domestic companies operate, so it would be absolutely impossible to separate out culture from business. The question should therefore ask “how does domestic culture impact domestic business operations” rather than “could culture impact domestic business operations.”

Source:

Ball, Donald A. et al. (2006). International Business: The Challenge of Global Competition. Mc-Graw-Hill Irwin. New York, New York. P. 382-399, 484-486.

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