How important is a Culture’s Orientation to Nature? As International Managers are we willing to take direction to the push of the technology or the pull of the market?
Orientations to nature have much to do with how we conduct our day-to-day lives and manage businesses. Cultures may seek either to master nature, to accept and be subjugated by it, or to live in the most effective harmony with it. Nature is both controllable by people and liable to show sudden reversals of relative strength, becoming their master, not slave. Neither situation is very stable nor very desirable, since a subjugated nature may fail to sustain people on Earth.
A Relationship closely analogous to humans and nature is that of organizations and markets. A product may succeed not simply because we will it to, or because the special features designed into a delight customers. It may succeed for reason other than those that come from inside of us, reasons that have to do with the way other people in the environment think rather than what we think.
In an internally controlled culture people prefer to focus on technological innovation. In an externally controlled culture, instead, people focus mainly on the market. This also has its limitations. The client is no always fully aware of its own wishes. Sometimes listening to the client takes so long that a product is redundant as soon as it enter the market.
Again, we may observe the power of reconciling the two cultures. The push of the technology may determine the choice of the clients to whom one wants to listen. The pull of the market may provide direction for the development of the technology.
Question: Are we willing to take direction from customers, where this is not our original direction? Elaborate
Or …
Are we willing to change our minds when it becomes clear that customers’ preferences are different from our own? Elaborate
