Global Marketing Environment: Bridging the Cultural Gap and Characteristics of a Global Leader

Running head: GLOBAL MARKETING ENVIRONMENT
Global marketing environment
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1GLOBAL MARKETING ENVIRONMENT
Introduction
Global business is one of most emerging and popular terms in the current business
scenario. This is due to the reason that in the current era of the globalization, majority of the
business organizations are either operating or opting to have their business in different countries
around the world. This is in order to cope up with the high level of competition in the market and
to increase the sales revenue. However, in doing the global business, there are different factors
should be considered by the businesses in order to have the maximum effectiveness. One of the
major factors is cultural differences. Each of the countries across the world is having different
cultures and it is important for the business organizations to adhere to the cultural factors in their
host country (Popescu, 2013). In addition, leadership effectiveness also plays an important in the
global business due to the fact that characteristics of the global leader are different from a
national level leader. The entire concept of doing business in the case of global market is
completely different to that of business scenario prior to the globalization.
This report will discuss about the major differences in doing business between the host
and home countries by considering the examples of China and the United States. In addition, a
prominent global leader will be identified for discussing the key characteristics and how they
differ from others. The trend of business in the developed and developing countries will also be
discussed along with the critical evaluation of the view of Milton Friedman’s business
responsibility.
Bridging the cultural gap between the United States and China
From the perspective of the vice president of a MNC from the United States, there are
number of problems to be faced in doing business in China. The major difference will be the

2GLOBAL MARKETING ENVIRONMENT
political system of China, which being a communist type is more closed economy compared to
the open economy of the United States. In terms of culture also, there are number of differences
to be considered. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions will be used to identify the cultural differences
between the two countries. One of the major problems will be in case of power distance as the
power distance is huge between the two countries. The ranking of both the countries is denoting
that authoritative style is more being followed in China while the hierarchy level is less followed
in the United States (Jackson & Wang, 2013). Thus, in bridging the gap between the two
countries, the more problem will be to align the home countries employees in following the strict
hierarchy in China. On the other hand, Chinese employees will also not be comfortable enough
in working without having the authority. Thus, it will be difficult for the managers in managing
the employees from both the host and home countries and maintain coordination among them.
Another major cultural difference between China and the United States is the extent of
individualism in the society. It is identified that China is more collectivist society compared to
the individualist society of the United States. Thus, it will be a challenge for the business
organizations from the United States to have their operation in China due to the reason that
society plays an important role in influencing the preference pattern of the customers in China.
Hence, the American firm will have to design their organizational as well as marketing strategies
in respect to the social trends in China. In addition, it will also be important for the American
firm to focus more on the personal relationships with the employees. This is due to the reason
that in the American culture, employees are more self oriented and they are not getting
influenced by the external social forces (Ozer, Zheng & Ren, 2014). On the other hand, in the
Chinese culture, personal relationships are being given major concentration and thus it will be
difficult for the American business organizations to adhere to these changes. In addition,

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bridging the gap will involve implementing the individualistic approach in the Chinese
operation, which will lead to de-motivation of the employees due to the reason that Chinese
employees cannot be motivated by their existing approaches.
It is also identified in the Hofstede’s cultural dimensions that China is having high
scoring in terms of long term orientation and this is denoting that Chinese society is more
vulnerable to rapid changes. This will also be a major challenge for the American business
organization due to the reason that the more frequent will be the changes in the social trends and
patterns, the more will be the difficulties for the business firm in coping up with it. In bridging
the gap, the American firm will have to increase the flexibility in their organizational process,
which will be in against the culture of the host country culture. Thus, they will have to initiate
different approaches in different countries.
Characteristics of a global leader
In the current business scenario, one of the most prominent figures is Elon Musk of
Tesla. In the recent time, he has gained an immense popularity due to his innovative and out of
the box thinking and disrupted the entire automobile industry. One of the major characteristics of
the global business leader is deep self awareness (Coccia, 2017). This refers to the skills of
having the better understanding about own beliefs and knowledge and trying to adhere to the
global standards. In the case of Elon Musk, he is known for his innovative and creative thinking
and knowledge and he is also having the ability to influence the opinions of others. There are
number of instances, where it is seen that public opinions are being gathered in order to develop
products by Tesla such as Tesla semi (Anderson & November, 2013). This is one of the major