In a recent post, I explained the problems in the search industry on international expansion. For instance, a UK vendor spent hundreds of thousands of dollars without signing a single US client, while a US vendor did the same thing in the UK. What gives? How do companies get it right? Let’s look no further than that iconic American hamburger vendor, McDonalds.
Look at the Big Tasty burger. Never heard of it? Just to to Brazil, Portugal or Italy to pick one up. It was dreamed up in a test kitchen in Germany and then tweaked, trialed and launched in Sweden in 2003, where it was a huge success. But to quote Fortune, the Big Tasty has become more than a giant burger: It is a prime example of how, in this era of global business, the tail can end up wagging the dog.
Yet, as McDonalds has been discovering, running a successful global company requires some significant changes in corporate behavior. Going “glo-cal” as management consultants like to call it, requires striking a balance between managing a brand on a consistent basis and appealing to different tastes (culture) in dozens of markets. It means delegating authority and letting things happen; it is not a job for control freaks.
McDonalds also has clear rules on where the limits lie. Country managers can create their own campaigns but cannot fiddle with the logo.
As the article points out, this is not easy to do. What’s hard is creating a culture, corporate structure and work environment that fosters innovation whereever it takes place. “It takes a high degree of sophistication to do something like that.” says Till Vestering, who runs the Singapore office for Bain and Co.
Learn lessons wherever you can. You can learn a lot from a burger company.
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