A RECENT CONFERENCE OF ASEAN JOURNALists came out with a new jargon: the ?mojos? or mobile journalists. People of the press are being advised to think regional while acting local. A Filipino journalist should follow closely developments in the 10 members of the Asean. She should be familiar with the ?red shirts? of Thailand or with Sri Mulyani, former finance minister of Indonesia and now a high-ranking World Bank official.
In the same vein, I propose that we develop ?moexes? or mobile executives. Business executives in the Philippines should think of expanding their operations to such Asean countries as Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and Myanmar. These are countries in which any successful business in the Philippines can find profitable opportunities since barriers to trade and investments are rapidly disappearing with the Asean Free Trade Area (Afta). Pioneers in going regional are United Laboratories, Jollibee, Southeast Asian Food, Del Monte, Century Can, San Miguel Corp. and Liwayway Manufacturing (Oishi), among others.
Philippine firms crossing borders should, however, prepare for the cultural land mines that could make their expansion to other countries very difficult. I am not referring only to obvious differences in consumer tastes, say in food, beverage or personal care products. Jollibee learned the hard way that fast-food products that are smashing successes in the Philippines could very well fail in China or Indonesia. Oishi snack food items may have to be modified for entry into Vietnamese or Indonesian markets where consumers prefer super-spicy crackers. Del Monte may have to make their canned pineapples less sweet in other Asean countries. The way McDonald?s had to adapt their menus to Filipino tastes (hamburger with rice, spaghetti) has already become legendary.
But differences in consumer tastes constitute the easy part of cultural adaptation. More challenging are people management practices that are significantly determined by differences in cultural traits. One does not have to be a psychologist to observe, for example, that many South Koreans in the Philippines rub Filipinos the wrong way in golf courses, restaurants and other public places because of the clash between the directness and loudness of many Koreans and the smooth interpersonal relationships highly valued by most Filipinos. Even Japanese and South Koreans often find it hard to work with one another. Already some Filipino executives in Vietnam are realizing that their usual preference to spend time with their families during weekends and after work may not sit well with their very demanding Vietnamese employers.
To prepare more Filipino entrepreneurs and executives to cross cultural borders, the University of Asia and the Pacific has invited an expert on cross-cultural management from the famous IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain? whose full-time MBA program was ranked No. 1 in the whole world by The Economist. It was also ranked by The Financial Times as No. 5 in the world for executive education program and No. 2 for open enrollment offerings. The IESE professor visiting the Philippines is Prof. Yih-teen Lee, who teaches People Management at the IESE Business School and does a lot of research in cross-cultural management. He is especially qualified to talk about this topic in Asia because he hails from Taiwan but has taught for many years in Europe, first in Lausanne (Switzerland) and then in Barcelona. He is fluent in Mandarin, English, French and Spanish. He is collaborating closely with Dr. Pablo Cardona, who recently lectured to different business audiences in the Philippines about the new management concept called Management by Mission which is an improvement over Management by Results and Management by Objectives that have dominated management practices over the last 50 years. Professor Lee contributes to understanding and developing the competences required in managing in a cross-cultural context. Some of the cases he will use will actually introduce executives to the complexities of working with South Koreans and Chinese.
The seminar in which Professor Lee will speak is titled ?Developing Cross-Cultural Competences for Global Leaders.? Scheduled for June 30, 2010 at 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Telengtan Hall of the University of Asia and the Pacific, the seminar is valuable for organizations that either have cross-cultural staff and officers, or have commercial presence in more than one country, or serve international markets. For information, please contact Ms Alonica Salazar or Ms Lea Rinon at 634-3095 or 637-0912, loc. 222 or e-mail sbep@uap. edu.ph.
Dr. Bernardo M. Villegas is senior vice president of the University of Asia and the Pacific. For comments, his e-mail address is bvillegas@uap.edu. ph.
