“The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.” – Dr. Ralph Nichols
“Understanding culture is the key to successful globalization.” – Dr. Paul Pereira
The Three Cs of Global Markets: Culture, Customs, and Communications
Alton World specializes in generating turnarounds to create greater value for companies in distress and in launching new or established businesses into global markets, facilitating cross-border transactions and executing strategy including those in Europe. Middle East, Asia, the Caribbean, and South America.
By integrating what Dr. Paul A. Pereira refers to as a meta-model of Three Cs – culture, customs, and communications – with the core principles of business process, in which success is measured via traditional KPI’s and profitability, Alton World formulates strategies to address the unique circumstances of each business scenario and objective.
Adaptive Strategies
“The Three C’s approach is similar to organic growth,” says Pereira as he defines the process with the following comparisons:
- Culture is analogous to a strand of DNA each specific and particular in their own way.
- Customs consists of all the mechanisms that transcribe DNA into cells consisting of particular behaviors and patterns.
- Communication takes place when DNA-encrypted cells interact with each other. This is where the tire hits the road and the combination of Culture and Custom must be carefully articulated.
Similar to what Tarun Khanna discusses in his Harvard Business Review article, “Contextual Intelligence,” Alton World’s approach is built upon the thesis that the standard protocols for business be flexibly adapted to the unique characteristics of individual markets.
These characteristics include such factors as historical business practices, pre-existing relationships between customers and vendors, local laws and financial practices, technological and communications challenges, religious and social customs, and sometimes even politics.
Beyond easily adapting to cultural and geographical differences from one locale to the next, Alton World offers refined expertise in helping businesses overcome serious obstacles such as cross-border conflict and deeply rooted competitor monopolies.
Proven Success
The flexibility of the Three C’s approach has enabled Alton to successfully modernize telecommunications in underdeveloped markets as disparate as Palestine (PalTel) and Trinidad (InterServ), to rescue a brewery in the Caribbean from drowning in brand overload (Carib), rebuild a major manufacturer in Slovenia (Elan), develop successful turnaround strategy for Pharmaceutical companies, and workouts for major Regional Airlines and to refocus efforts of the manufacturers of a revolutionary biopolymer (MHG/Danimer Scientific) to leverage capital infrastructure and generate new revenue streams to profitability.
By adjusting textbook business best-practices for personnel management, corporate governance, customer service, and supply chain management to work more cohesively with local stakeholders and customs, or to address unusual challenges of a developing market or nation, Alton World helps enterprises:
- Enter new markets
- Build effective New Business Strategy
- Reduce operating overheads
- Mitigate Risk
- Create company and shareholder value
- Create Effective turnarounds
- Raise Capital
- Deliver performance charged results for profitability.
- Become Successful.
Alton World recognizes that sometimes successful transactions require “soft skills.” Most critical is the ability to recognize and understand the unique culture of a business environment, the business customs that the culture translates into, and the most effective means of communicating a vision and mission to partners and customers.
Alton World facilitates the “buy-in” – often by utilizing local expertise – with the goal of establishing a healthy synchronicity with all stakeholders.
To learn more, please take a moment to review Alton World’s unique methodology for business planning and development.
Alton World’s Case Studies, which represent business ventures spanning four continents, additionally demonstrate and validate the Three C’s approach to global business development.