The Importance of Intercultural Knowledge

Stories Featuring Dermalogica, Celebrity Chef, and Zumba

Intro

“Intercultural Knowledge” may seem like a buzzword with very little meaning behind it, but it is absolutely vital to succeeding in any country or market where your startup might expand. One mistake with culture, language, or geography can completely ruin your reputation and end your company. Many established companies have had difficulties when moving to a new market because they ignored one of those three reasons.

Culture

Culture and cultural signals are important because they are the framework that people use to communicate. For example, people in Japan value hierarchy and formality. A significant ritual in business meetings is the exchange of business cards. If you don’t have a card at all, or take the card in a way that signifies disrespect, your relationship with that company is practically guaranteed to be dead in the water.

Legal systems are also subject to cultural assumptions. Japan law is focused on protecting the reputation of companies, rather than seeking to find the truth. As such, a whistleblower who damages the company’s reputation has few protections from retaliation in Japanese law.

Language

Another significant aspect is language. Language is how people verbally communicate with each other, so messing them up in translation will result in confusion or offense. The founder of Zumba couldn’t speak English at all, so they had to write out an infomercial script with Spanish phonetics and get him out of the meeting as fast as possible. This worked out for them, but other companies have tried to communicate in foreign languages and failed miserably. 

One notable example is the Got Milk campaign. This campaign tried to translate their slogan into Spanish, and ended up asking “Are You Lactating?”. Another example happened when Nike tried to make apparel with Chinese characters on them. The characters that they chose ended up spelling an offensive message, and Nike had to issue an apology. 

While big companies can survive cultural gaffes, startups do not have that luxury. A mistake in translation can sink your company and taint your reputation irrevocably.

Geography

A less-recognized but still important aspect of intercultural knowledge is geography knowledge on both a small and large scale. Celebrity chef José Andrés once went to New York for an important business meeting and got so lost that he ended up two hours late. Startups, especially if they are seeking to form a relationship with a big company, cannot have that happen.

In the case of large-scale geography misconceptions, most people outside of the United States aren’t aware of how big it actually is. They may think that you can drive from Colorado to Florida in less than a day, when it takes roughly a week. This seems ludicrous to any European, because the image in their head could translate to “England and France”, instead of the true scale. A step to envisioning the true scale is the knowledge that Texas is slightly bigger than the entirety of France. 

Final Thoughts

Startups need to have at least a basic knowledge of culture, language, and geography to succeed in whatever market they seek to target. It is not enough to simply adlib your interactions, you need to have some idea of what you are doing. Intercultural communication can be fraught at the best of times with significant resources, and startups will not have the luxury of surviving if they mess up.