Managers' Forum ~ Book Reviews
Managers' Forum ~ Book Reviews
"Blunders in International Business" is a brief, 157 pages book,easy to read and useful for any person interested in the area of international business. The author, David A. Ricks, uses a unique approach by relating frequent blunders committed by multinational corporations, when entering a foreign market. An example that impacted me was a company that advertised its giant burrito as a "burrada" a word that in many Latin American countries means "big mistake"(71).As he mentions in the preface, while "success stories" are seldom remembered, "mistakes" aren't, and have proved to be costly to corporations. The author highlights that many of them could have been avoided, if not overlooked by managers.
The book is structured in nine chapters. Seven of which include examples of blunders committed by different multinational corporations, from the US to Japan, in each of the different areas of international business. These areas are: production, names, marketing, translation, management, strategic management, and others (law, finance and market research). The first chapter is an introduction, and in the last chapter the author summarizes lessons learned and makes some recommendations.
Basically, after reading this book, there are three key learnings that I will always remember. First, one should never overlook any aspect of international business; every detail should be considered. Second, one should never assume that a product or service successful in one market would guarantee a success in a different one, even in markets of the same continents. Third, any company entering a foreign market should deal with local people.
A final thought is that the content of this book can be useful not only to an American citizen but to any person, interested in the area of international business, regardless of his or her nationality.
David A. Ricks, Blunders in International Business, Blackwell Publishers (1997) ISBN 1-55786-414-4
