When in Rome

When in Rome, do as the romans do. In this time old adage the reader is reminded to be polite and to abide by the customs and culture of a society when they are guests there. Nowhere is this phrase more important to remember than in the business world. With the world becoming ever more interconnected, managers, when thinking about expanding their operations should always think about how their actions can negatively impact their business in that foreign market. There is no better example of a costly intercultural mistake than those that have been committed by the world’s largest retailer Wal-Mart. As expressed in the Wall Street Journal’s Article “Lower Tariffs, Retail Muscle Translate into Big Sales for Wal-Mart in Mexico” by David Luhnow, Wal-Mart’s expansion into neighboring country Mexico was seamless and yielded extensive profits, while the expansion into the Eur-Asian continent have been met every step of the way with innumerable drawbacks. These drawbacks have occurred due to the fact that Wal-Mart has a “one size” fits all mentality. In trying to advance into South Korean and German markets, Wal-Mart committed costly intercultural mistakes. Instead of trying to meld the culture of the foreign nation with that of their company, they imposed their mid-western folksiness, anti-union mindset and hyper bulk buying strategy onto cultures that are not accustomed to that strategy. Wal-Mart is a multinational American retailor that runs chains of large discount departmentalized stores and warehouse stores. These large stores allow the shoppers to enjoy a “one stop shop for everything.” According to Wal-Mart's website corporate.walmart.com “Sam Walton opened the first “Wal-Mart store in 1962 in Rodgers, Arkansas” (pg. 1). Its headquarters have not mover to far from there, they are in Bentonville, Arkansas. Wal-Mart later became the nation’s largest retail store. With the turn of the century Wal-Mart began to focus on expanding abroad, Wal-Mart hoped for promising