Global expansion: balancing a uniform performance culture with local conditions

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to advise leaders of global enterprises who are increasingly concerned about the effects of international expansion on their corporate culture. It seeks to explain that companies that nurture a set of enterprise‐wide mindsets can maintain a unity of purpose while at the same time successfully adapting practices to diverse local economic and cultural conditions.

Design/methodology/approach

An Accenture survey of more than 900 senior executives on the challenges of building a global organization revealed that they are increasingly concerned with the problem of maintaining a common corporate culture and identity. The firm then studied the best practices of successful firms.

Findings

When performance mindsets are widely shared, they translate established company values into practices by means of commonly understood guidelines on how to recognize and solve problems – which, in turn, guide the organization in making decisions when faced with many possibilities.

Practical implications

Country managers must ensure that the company's values and mindsets are used to overcome the national, cultural, and linguistic boundaries that can block success.

Originality/value

With the participation of leaders at all levels of an organization a company's management of its performance mindsets can become a distinctive capability and thereby a source of international competitive advantage. By successfully following these steps for managing and propagating shared values and mindsets across diverse organizations corporations can produce winning performance in the competitive international arena.

Citation

Bellin, J.B. and Pham, C.T. (2007), "Global expansion: balancing a uniform performance culture with local conditions", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 35 No. 6, pp. 44-50. https://doi.org/10.1108/10878570710833750