Subtitled how national culture can make our break your corporate strategy this book points out that national culture, through its influence on corporate culture has a powerful but often invisible impact on the success of global companies. Conversely, the same national traits that accelerated growth in one stage of the corporate lifecycle may derail that growth at a different stage or when an inevitable crisis hits.
Culture is embedded in the organisation through a combination of national and business influencers. The former is deeply embedded through the beliefs and values of the founders and managers while the latter is influenced by the business realities facing the corporation, the authors note.
The book looks at how Samsung Electronics became the world's largest consumer electronics company in less than 20 years unseating Sony in the process and examines the pivotal role the national heritage of both companies played in this. It shows that Toyota creates a sustainable competitive advantage for almost 25 years, by adapting a global business philosophy deeply rooted in business culture.
Eight recommendations are made for recognising the cultural factors that negatively impact performance, as well as those that can be harnessed to encourage superior performance. There are extensive case studies from leading global companies and nation-state traits and how they affect corporate culture are examined in detail across seven countries, the US, Sweden, France, Japan, Italy and Germany.