Utopia

Culture is a strong aspect for building a marketing strategy which includes origins such as geography, history, political economy, technology etc and elements such as cultural values, symbols, and beliefs and so on. Culture is a great attribute for a generation. It has an important impact on the corporate world. We are always moving, our corporate life allows us to face with this issue called culture. We always have to have a broad knowledge about the culture of a country. History can give us many examples on this matter.

Once a toy company in USA wanted to spread their business in the Japan. For this, they exported a toy which included a box filled with 4 colorful balls. The package was very attractive, but it did not sell in Japan. So, the company investigated the matter and found out that the number four was the fault. In Japan 4 is pronounced "shi" which means death. It is an ancient believe and till now the number is considered as a symbol of death. Many traditional hotels and hospitals in Japan do not use the number 4 in any of their rooms. So, the American company withdrawn all the products and repacked it with less or more than 4 balls. This time, it was a hit sale. This example explains that sometimes consumer buy things according to the belief of their country.

Another story goes like this, America and Mexico is in the same geographical location. Though Americans say that Mexico and America are friends because they are geographically neighbor but Mexico argues that they may be geographically neighbor but their culture is totally different. So, in order to connect the two countries they should know about their culture.

Even doing my job, I have to work with many foreigners. While working with them, I had to learn about their culture to properly communicate with them. Also in my Country Bangladesh, we have so many different cultures, sometimes I fall in many false positions. Last time I visited Sylhet, a district in my Country, I went to a restaurant and ordered “Puri” (Puri is a food item which made of lentils and flour) as I asked for “Puri” the waiter starred at me very angrily. Later I found out that “Puri” means Girls in Sylhety language. As I did not know the local language, I faced this problem.

From all these examples, we can see that culture is connected very strongly with our day to day life and corporate life as well. In my first article as I mentioned about SRC (Self Reference Criterion) and there is another point “Ethnocentrism”, by using these two points we can realize about others culture. So, we should nurture these cultures as we move forward in this world. We do not want to change a culture; we just want to work with it by sharing their thoughts and beliefs. The basis of production and consumption is made on decisions using their cultural based knowledge. For a good leader, the knowledge of culture is very important.

Communication is a three steps process i.e. thoughts, encoding and decoding. Firstly the content of the mind is send in the form of concept, information, idea or emotion from the sender then it is send to the receiver in words or other symbols and lastly the words or symbols is translated and sends an appropriate reply via the same channel.

Communication might be verbal, non verbal or visual, formal or informal. In research, it is found that 55% from the visual components, 38% from hearing components and 7% from language. Whatever may be the ways of communication is, it should be carried out effectively. In an organization, these ways of communication are encountered everyday.

Once a philosopher said “When you know something, say what you know. When you don't know something, say that you don't know.” Communication is something that is act upon you. This is the way that will help you reveal your task.

In an organization, public relations, marketing, branding, customer relations, advertising, research and development, corporate relations, consumer behavior plays a vital role and all these are based on communication. Communication mainly depends on some channels such as email, radio, media, telecoms, presentations, social networking and face to face. Besides that there are many other ways of communication and all these method circumstantial.

There are different kinds of barriers in communication. These may be cultural, environmental, backgrounds, lack of knowledge and ideas, ego, nervousness and lack of confident. A good leader always works through these barriers.

Leadership and communication is always bond together. Without a good communication skill, a leader fails to commit according to his strategy and also fails to manage an organization smoothly. In an organization or to a leader, it is another basic parts to earn the goals. There is a difference in communication skill at both corporate and field level. A situation will indicate what kind of communication skill is necessary. Lastly, we can say that communication is a soul for an organization.

By: Me