Cultural Mistakes of Pizza Hut

While writing this paper I will identify some “cultural mistakes” according too articles from Risk Management and the Wall Street Journal. I picked Domino’s pizza from the second article. I will analyze Dominos Pizza’s cultural approaches to foreign markets and discuss how they came to the perspective of cultural decisions. I will explain how Domino’s pizza manages “cultural mistakes” that involve “cultural differences”. I really liked the blurp about Richard Nixon and the “A-Okay” sign that was in the Management Magazine article. In this article the President of the United States held up the “A-Okay” sign after arriving in Brazil, which is equivocal to Americans as the middle finger. As President of the United States you would think prior to him going into another country his foreign affairs committee would have given him a quick cultural or customs background brief on the country he was visiting. This was embarrassing to not only him but more importantly the United States. We as Americans don’t take gestures as seriously as many other cultures do. It doesn’t play such a big role in our culture like it does in many other countries. Take for instance, in Europe if you hold the peace sign up with your palm held inward towards you, it means the same thing the ‘A-Okay” sign means to the Brazilians. While visiting Turkey I had firsthand knowledge of another body gesture. This gesture was showing the bottom of your foot or the sole of your shoe. The Turkish and or Muslims in general find this very offensive. The way I found this out was; I was TDY (temporary duty) in Turkey and I was in a local store, the custom was to have Chi or tea while you shop. Well, while I was sitting drinking some tea I crossed my legs exposing the bottom part of my foot which insulted the owner to the point that he threw me out of his store. I then took it upon myself to get acquainted with Turkish customs and courtesies to avoid future incidents. It is a very good practice