Bad translations have long been the humor well that keeps on giving in International Business. Just think of German car maker Audi’s relatively recent rollout of the E-tron (French for excrement) brand for their electric cars. Nike is certainly no stranger to translation issues as it has blundered among Arabic speakers and devout muslims as […]
When Netflix launched in India in 2016, the future seemed bright. With 200 million households having TV sets, India was and is a large market with a strong movie culture. It seemed to be ripe for Netflix’s combination of global hits and local productions. As it did in other markets, Netflix launched by serving a […]
As recently reported, Lavazza, the iconic Italian coffee company has big plans for China. In 2020, while the COVID-19 pandemic was still raging in other countries, it opened its flagship store in Shanghai’s fashionable Jing’An district, and expanded to some twenty locations in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou in 2021. Lavazza is clearly capitalizing on […]
Today, coffee and donut chain Dunkin’ Donuts (DD), part of Inspire Brands that also owns Baskin Robbins, Arby’s, Sonic and others, has more than 3,200 restaurants in approximately 40 countries. It took a long time to develop such an impressive global presence, and success didn’t come easy. DD’s internationalization began 1964. Shortly after he had […]
A few weeks ago, the news came down hard, but not unexpected – Ford would close its manufacturing operation in Brazil. To add insult to injury, the news came in the year in which the Detroit, US-based manufacturer was supposed to celebrate its 100th anniversary in the land of samba, feijoada, and cachaca. In 1921, […]
A warning at the beginning: This post includes language that some may find offensive. And it might hold some surprises. The first surprise may be that Amazon only recently – during the second half of 2020 – opened a national site in Sweden. In fact, the first one in Europe’s Nordic countries. The second surprise […]
Despite my obsession of learning from failures in international business, every once in a while, I must acknowledge companies that did an exceptionally good job at entering a foreign market. And today, it is IKEA’s turn to step in front of the curtain. More than a decade ago, the Swedish furniture and retail giant has […]
“Wo gehobelt wird, da fliegen Späne” is an old German proverb that would roughly translate into the English “You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs”. Granted, coordinating and controlling activities across geographical and cultural distances in multinational companies that have tens or hundreds of thousands of employees globally, is not an easy task. A […]
After a golden age of expansion in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, the last decade hasn’t exactly been the best for sandwich chain Subway. A few years ago, Subway had approximately 42,000 restaurants in 111 countries globally, and proudly proclaimed itself the world’s largest fast food chain. In recent years, Subway experienced challenges in […]
Without a doubt, Germans are a beer-loving people. With more than 100 liters of beer consumption per capita annually, more than 1,500 breweries, and more than 6,000 beer brands, the market is closely eyed by foreign brands, and many have tried to capture a piece of the pie (or should I say, a sip from […]
Trade wars, lawsuits, viruses – the last several weeks and months have clearly shown that even the mightiest global companies can easily been shaken by the external environment in global markets. Let’s take Amazon in India as an example. For years, the eCommerce behemoth has tried to break into the market. It created jobs, brought […]
During the summer of 2019, Italians’ didn’t show much appetite for a meal from American fast food giant McDonald’s. The reason was a failed attempt at being funny in another, neighboring market – Austria. While McDonald’s promotions in the United States often focus on price and value, it has become common in other countries to […]