Businesses in globalising world
Walmart, the global supermarket brand, bought Seiyu to operate their business in Japan. After just one year, Walmart lost a number of its outlets. If it shuts down its business completely in Japan, it wouldn’t be the first company to do so. Before Walmart, the UK’s largest retail brand also faced a similar situation.
Starbucks is literally the coffee giant of its time. In China, the company opens a new outlet every 15 hours. Yet, when it met one of the world’s biggest coffee markets in Australia, it failed. With 36,000 and 16,000 locations across the world, McDonald’s and Burger King are giants in the fast food market. But they are failing terribly in Vietnam.
Make things fast and cheap was for a while the one size fits all mantra of globalisation, but not anymore.
In Japan, people buy a lot of stuff from vending machines and local shops which share their value. Walmart, on the other hand, is just another superstore. In Australia, they have many different custom preferences of coffee and have a personal connection with coffee shops, but Starbucks was just a coffee shop selling commodity not personal connection. In Vietnam, people are accustomed to buying food that are cheaper than McDonald’s.
Mass production is now an outdated idea. This is an era of customisation. If a business wants to grow, it will have to adjust itself accordingly.
Emon Bhuiyan
East West University
