In February 2018, Chinese company Meituan became the world’s fourth most valuable startup. Meituan, now valued at $30 billion, originally started as a group purchasing platform, similar to Groupon, which had its stab at the Chinese market. Yes, Groupon. Let’s turn the clock back for a moment. In mid 2011, American publication Forbes asked, “Can […]
In 1996, French dairy and water giant Danone entered the Chinese market. Recognizing that in order to succeed in the Chinese market, one had to have a good understanding of consumer behavior, access to suppliers, as well as outstanding network relationships – the famed “guanxi” – with government agencies and distribution channel partners, Danone decided […]
Meet Nayar. Nayar (name changed) is the proud owner of a retail store. His store has no loyalty cards and no shopping carts, no cash registers and no employees. Nayar has a lot of customers, though. His store is located under a stairwell in a house at a busy intersection in Calcutta, India. Nothing special […]
In January 2018, Swedish global fashion retailer H&M had closed several of its stores temporarily. The move was necessary to protect its employees, prevent damage to its stores, and stop further protests. What had happened? For a short while, H&M’s online store carried hoodies with a variety of slogans. One of the images showed a black child […]
Late in 2017, German chain Kaufland, part of the German-based Schwartz Group that also owns retailer Lidl, entered the Australian AUS$ 90 billion market for groceries. It brought its brand of huge, warehouse style stores that usually have 15,000 to 20,000 square meters and a range of up to 60,000 different products to Aidelaide first and […]
One summer night in 1996, Howard Schultz, founder and now Executive Chairman of Starbucks, the Seattle-based coffeeshop giant, had dinner with the company’s newly acquired Japanese partner. It was the night before the opening of the first ever Starbucks in Tokyo. In fact, it was the first Starbucks opening outside of North America altogether! The […]
For the longest time, French-based retail giant Carrefour made a good poster child for internationalization. With a presence in twice as many countries as British competitor Tesco, its expansion into foreign markets has been broader in scope and faster in speed than any other global retailer’s. Carrefour was one of the first grocers who saw […]
In a previous blogpost, I have written about global ride hailing company Uber’s woes in overseas markets such as China or Colombia. Just recently – on December 20th (2017), to be more specific – the European Court of Justice delivered a nice lump of coal to Uber for Christmas. The European Union’s highest court ruled […]
The educator in me has great fun having students or audiences at speaking events guess interesting factoids from the world of international business, especially if the exercise creates a great teachable moment. For instance, based on the 2017 edition of the Fortune Global 500 list, I often ask students what they think the world’s most profitable […]
Founded in 1978 by David Overton and with more than 200 restaurants, 2 billion US$ in revenues and about 40,000 employees, the Cheesecake Factory is one of the United States’ top restaurant chains in the casual dining category. For most of its history, the Cheesecake Factory was focused on the US market, and only started […]
Looking for interesting documentaries to watch, I recently came across Power Trip, and it was fascinating. Yes, you will have experienced better film-making and more interesting storytelling, but for someone interested in international business, the documentary is an intriguing reminder how tough things can be in foreign markets. The movie tells the story of AES, […]
When discussing the issue of standardization vs. adaptation of the marketing mix with students, I am often asked for convincing examples and illustrations of the differences between those strategies. One example that I personally like as a candy lover are wafers. As a category, they exist in most markets globally, and there is an abundance […]