Coca Cola and Walmart (diversity)
CLAIM: Companies, who intentionally want to be part of the global market, have to take in consideration the cultural background of the country they want to extent to in order to be successful.
Company’s who had to adapt to cultural diversity due to the fact the are global companies:
The Coca-Cola Company
Successful adapting
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Not successful adapting
Globalization, and therefore cultural diversity, was inevitable for these 2 companies.
Wal-Mart: grow quickly and became U.S. most important supermarket chain. It was estimated to control 20% of the groceries market in 1998 (only 28 years after their beginning). In 5 years they had already 24 stores and had 12.6 millions in sales.
Coca-Cola: the soft drink was created in 1886. By 1888 it was the world’s #1 most selling sparkling beverage. Coca-Cola was a very important brand during WWII. From the mid-1940s until 1960, the number of countries with bottling operations nearly doubled. After that, Coca-Cola was a strong and present international Brand.
Wal-Mart:
In 2005 they had 3.800 stores in the U.S. and 2.800 in other countries and more than 1.6 million of employees around the world.
As they became more global, they thought the same formula would work anywhere. Clear example that this is not the right way to think in a global company is their unsuccessful intention to rule the supermarket industry, as they had in other countries, in Germany. In 1997 they bought Wertkauf (a supermarket chain with 21 locations) for 375 millions of euros, and in 1998 they bought Interspar (with 74 stores) for 750 millions of euros. In 1998 they decided to officially be part of the German market. They did not think on how the German culture is and the expectations of the workers are from their job
Examples:
1. Each employee had to participate on a mandatory exercise during the morning. An important factor of the exercise was to shout “WALMART! WALMART! WLAMART!” as part of the motivating part.
Company’s who had to adapt to cultural diversity due to the fact the are global companies:
The Coca-Cola Company
Successful adapting
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Not successful adapting
Globalization, and therefore cultural diversity, was inevitable for these 2 companies.
Wal-Mart: grow quickly and became U.S. most important supermarket chain. It was estimated to control 20% of the groceries market in 1998 (only 28 years after their beginning). In 5 years they had already 24 stores and had 12.6 millions in sales.
Coca-Cola: the soft drink was created in 1886. By 1888 it was the world’s #1 most selling sparkling beverage. Coca-Cola was a very important brand during WWII. From the mid-1940s until 1960, the number of countries with bottling operations nearly doubled. After that, Coca-Cola was a strong and present international Brand.
Wal-Mart:
In 2005 they had 3.800 stores in the U.S. and 2.800 in other countries and more than 1.6 million of employees around the world.
As they became more global, they thought the same formula would work anywhere. Clear example that this is not the right way to think in a global company is their unsuccessful intention to rule the supermarket industry, as they had in other countries, in Germany. In 1997 they bought Wertkauf (a supermarket chain with 21 locations) for 375 millions of euros, and in 1998 they bought Interspar (with 74 stores) for 750 millions of euros. In 1998 they decided to officially be part of the German market. They did not think on how the German culture is and the expectations of the workers are from their job
Examples:
1. Each employee had to participate on a mandatory exercise during the morning. An important factor of the exercise was to shout “WALMART! WALMART! WLAMART!” as part of the motivating part.