American Auto Suppliers' Expansion to Japan: A Cultural Case Study

Introduction

The case study demonstrates how culture varies in different countries in the world. The American culture of doing business is different from the Japanese way of doing business. The American Auto Suppliers, a Chicago company, now decides to expand its business to Japan. Besides, the company chooses Warren Oats to lead the company in the Japanese market. Warren Oats persuades her wife to take an eighteen-month leave from a career as an attorney in one of the prestigious law firms in Chicago. Convincing her wife is the most challenging job as he leaves the United States. Warren Oats manages to persuade her wife, and they leave the United States for Japan.

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The first-month experience of Warren and Carol Oats in Japan clearly illustrates how cultures vary in different countries using the example of the japan and American culture. For a business to succeed in a foreign country, the executives need to understand the culture of the host country clearly. Secondly, Carol Oats case in Japan also clearly demonstrates the need for research on foreign culture while seeking a job in a foreign country. Carol does not know the female role in the Japanese culture, and she assumes that as a well-respected lawyer, she would get a job quickly. This paper will critically analyze Warren Oat's case study on understanding the diverse culture and its impacts on businesses.

Situation

The case study depicts a culture shock that Warren and Carol Oats get when they migrate to Japan. Warren has moved to Japan to lead his company. Further, Warren persuades his wife to accompany him in Japan by taking a leave from her job. Warren and Carol get a shock in Japan due to their insufficient knowledge of the Japanese culture. The American way of doing business is different from Japanese culture. The case study illustrates two significant scenarios that are seen from Warren and Carol actions.

The first scenario is the aggressive approach that Warren uses to Japanese executive when he tries to demonstrate and explain the company's proposal of penetrating in the foreign country's market. Warren takes a hurry decision to meet the Japanese executive without prior research of conducting appointment meetings in Japan. The objective of the Warren meeting with the Japanese executive was to overcome the famous Japanese resistance to foreign countries and to start running the operations of the company immediately. Warren assumed that the business culture in Japan is the same as that of America, and he did not understand that the Japanese society values relationship-building and indirectness over demonstrating a point. The Warren approach in Japan is demanding and blunt to the community, and the Japanese executives see him as harsh in forcing his respective issues. Warren also becomes impatient during his meeting with the Japanese executives, and he is uncomfortable. Warren presents his proposal and hands offer a packet containing the specifics to the delegation, gets up and leaves.

The second scenario is Carol's insufficient knowledge of the Japanese culture on the role of women. Carol does not do prior research on the Japanese culture, and she assumes that she will quickly get a job because of her career status quo in the United States as a senior lawyer in one of the most well-known law firms in Chicago. Carrol is unable to secure a job quickly in the Japanese multinational corporation. Further, the Japanese executives that carol meets feel insulted when she is asking for a job. The situation leads to Carol's frustration, and she cannot contain her irritation.

Problem

The case study depicts the main problem as to how American Auto Suppliers would penetrate the Japanese market easily and without resistance. The main goal of American Auto Suppliers is to win many customers in the host country to increase its sales, thus leading to high revenues that will make the company run its operations efficiently and effectively. The Japanese society is known for resistance to foreign companies, and this would negatively affect the sales of the company; hence it can collapse on arrival. Warren is trying to negotiate with the Japanese executives to partner the company with a Japanese company to win the local customers for easy penetration in the market. Warren has no understanding of the Japanese culture and language. Further, he has secured an interpreter to help him communicate easily with the Japanese executives, but his approach may cost the company the chances of quickly penetrating the Japanese market.

Case Questions

• What are the best approaches that American Auto Suppliers would use to penetrate the Japanese market quickly?
• What are the mistakes that Warren and Carol made during their first weeks in Japan?

Alternative Solutions

There exist two approaches that would work well for American Auto suppliers. The first approach that would work well for American Auto Suppliers is to partner up with a local company. The partnership with a local company would ease the company's penetration in the market. Moreover, American Auto Suppliers would efficiently market their products in the market. Lastly, the local customers will easily accept to purchase the company's products hence boosting the sales of the company in the Japanese market.

The second approach accessible to American Auto Suppliers is to make a contract with Japanese automakers to work as one company until when the company has made a mark on the local customers, and it can stand on its own. The company will be able to penetrate the market quickly, and its products will get easy acceptance from the local customers. Secondly, when the market makes up a mark on its local customers, it will have no resistance from the local purchasers since it will be a local company in the market as it runs its operations independently.

There also exist alternative solutions to the mistakes that Warren and Carol Oats committed. Warren should have conducted prior research on the Japanese ways of doing business. Warren should have put a deliberate focus on understanding how to effectively interact with Japanese and the meeting etiquette before meeting the delegation. The research would help him know the importance of introducing himself and the company before introducing the objective of the meeting.

Secondly, Warren should have come with assistants in the meeting. The delegation went as a group, and this shows that they were ready to ask questions that required expertise in the different fields. The silence shows that the Japanese were not satisfied with Warren approach.

Carol would have introduced herself earlier to the Japanese executives through a resume or cover letter. The approach that Carol uses leads to her frustrations and irritation. The Japanese are very keen when recruiting; thus, she could not secure a job quickly because they lacked documents for referring, and there were no formal interviews conducted.

Recommendations

First, I would recommend the company to critically analyze the problem to develop sound strategies of penetrating the Japanese market quickly. The American Auto Suppliers should take the problem as the opportunity of expanding its operations globally. Further, the company should strategize on how to win local customers but not aim in eliminating the local automakers from the industry.

Secondly, I would recommend the company to come into a contract with a competitor company and pair up to penetrate the market quickly. The pairing will attract many customers hence high sales for the company and less resistance from the locals.

Predictions

From my point of view, the company is likely to face a hard time when penetrating in the Japanese market because the overall manager is a foreigner and does not understand the Japanese culture. The company will also face difficulties in penetration because of the lack of prior research on the Japanese way of doing business.

Conclusion

Warren and Carol committed mistakes because of a lack of prior research on the Japanese culture. The errors that Warren committed by cost the American Auto Suppliers the chances of winning the Japanese market easily. The frustrations that Carol is facing is due to the lack of prior knowledge on the role of women in Japanese culture. For a business to thrive in a foreign country, there is a need for conducting preliminary research on the country's culture to understand it well as it is a success determinant factor.