Page 444 - Cultures and Organizations

Intercultural Encounters 409

The same applies for acquisitions in the home country, but abroad the cul-
tural risk is even larger. It is advisable for potential foreign (and domestic)
acquisitions to be preceded by an analysis of the cultures of the corporation
and of the acquisition candidate. If the decision is still to go ahead, such a
match analysis can be used as the basis for a culture management plan.
The cross-national merger poses all the problems of the foreign acquisi-
tion, plus the complication that power has to be shared. Cultural problems
can no longer be resolved by unilateral decisions. Cross-national mergers
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are therefore extremely risky. Even more than in the case of the foreign
acquisition, an analysis of the corporate and national cultures of the poten-
tial partners should be part of the process of deciding to merge. If the
merger is concluded, this analysis can again be the basis of a culture inte-
gration plan that needs the active and permanent support of a Machtpromo-
tor (see Chapter 10), probably the chief executive.
Two classic cases of successful cross-national mergers are Royal Dutch
Shell (dating from 1907) and Unilever (dating from 1930), both Dutch-
British. They show a few common characteristics: the smaller country

holds the majority of shares; two head offices have been maintained so as to
avoid the impression that the corporation is run from one of the two coun-
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tries only; there has been strong and charismatic leadership during the
integration phase; there has been an external threat that kept the partners
together for survival; and governments have kept out of the business.
A highly visible international project that is a combination of a stra-
tegic alliance and a joint venture is the Airbus consortium in Toulouse,
France. Airbus has become one of the two largest aircraft manufacturers in
the world. Parts of the planes are manufactured by the participating com-

panies in Britain, Germany, and Spain and then flown over to Toulouse,
where the planes are assembled.

International Marketing, Advertising, and
Consumer Behavior

Culture is present in the design and quality of many products and in the
presentation of many services. An example is the difference in the design
of the cockpit in passenger aircraft between Airbus (European, primarily
French or German) and Boeing (U.S.). The Airbus has been designed to fl y
itself with minimum interference from the pilot, while the Boeing design
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expects more discretion from and interaction with the pilot. The Airbus is