After going through bankruptcy, General Motors has promised to narrow its focus. In doing so, they have decided to sell Opel. The two leading bidders are Magna International Inc., a Canadian company, and RHJ International SA, a Belgium company.

While the government in Germany has gone on record to say that they hope that Magna International Inc. ends up getting Opel, General Motors is hesitant because they see Magna International Inc. as a direct competitor. For that reason, many see RHJ International SA ultimately being the company that comes away with Opel.

Opel has about 25,000 workers in Germany. While the German government doesn’t have a direct hand in the negotiations, they do have a voice because they will likely offer financing aid once the winning bid is selected.

Opel (Image: Flickr)

Post from: EveryJoe

Germany Wants Decision from GM

In any event, my mother has spoken with all sorts of people on airplanes, from Joey Bishop to the manager of a then-unknown Australian band named INXS. One of her most interesting chats, though, was with an exporter of sand. More peculiar, the gentleman in question was exporting sand to Saudi Arabia. It would seem to me that there’s more than enough sand in Saudi Arabia to go around, but according to this account the sand is actually too fine to make strong concrete, so this exporter’s business was exporting coarse US sand to mix with the native sand in large construction projects.

The story may well be apocryphal, but the point to be taken from it is still a good one. Never assume that a foreign market doesn’t need your product or service – people can and do export beer to Germany, potatoes to Poland, and Big Macs to more countries than I care to count. In fact, one of my clients exports pretzels to Germany, which would seem like a sure loser, but the fact is that US pretzel products have developed very differently than those in Germany since commercial US pretzel baking began in 1861.

If you think your product isn’t export-worthy, take a second look at what differentiates it from the rest and you may well find a foreign market for it after all.

Post from: EveryJoe

Potatoes to Poland, Sand to Saudi Arabia

Source: BGA exporters lobby.

Post from: EveryJoe

World’s Biggest Exporter

Holidays like Valentine’s Day last week make excellent case studies about international business. Some creative (often American) marketeer came up with a way to increase flower and chocolate sales and in the meantime it has spread around the world like a pandemic.

Valentine’s Day is not a big deal in Germany where I live. School children do not pass out cards to everyone in their class. Spouses do not get irate if they don’t receive any flowers. So I had to smile when I heard one of (German) colleagues say that he usually doesn’t buy flowers for his wife on February 14th, but this year he did. He has been working together with a new team in France and over there, if you don’t buy something suitable for your wife, she may not let you in the door when you get home.

Wow, who needs Internet marketing when you’ve got international word of mouth working for you?

Unfortunately, I didn’t hear this story until February 15th, so my present to my sweetie was one day late.

How big is Valentine’s Day where you live?

Image from 4four.at

Post from: EveryJoe

Share the Love

Notwithstanding all of that, it’s still kind of surreal to see it intrude upon your otherwise daily activities. In my case, that means watching the return of The Daily Show to the Comedy Channel, in particular John Oliver’s bit on the writer’s strike.

See what I mean?

Post from: EveryJoe

Really, I’d love to strike, but I can’t

Now, I can’t help thinking this is kind of a Facebook for adults, but I have to say that, at first blush, there are some things I like about it. For one, on more than one occasion I was excited to find the name of an old work colleague or friend (or both), and to send them a quick e-mail. Now I owe them a real e-mail as a followup up but then again, LinkedIn is there to remind me (and them) of that on a more regular basis than might otherwise be the case.

The other advantage is the usual advantage of the Internet – sheer breadth of geographical coverage. Since my business deals a lot with Germany, it’s nice to have a single tool (other than e-mail) which allows me to put myself out there in Germany, Detroit, the UK, or wherever else I know people. There’s a feeling of overexposure which comes with that, but hopefully it’s outweighed by the personal contacts regained and the additional business from those few people who saw my profile and said “hey, this might be the guy.”

Should you care to look, my profile is here. Be forewarned, though, I’m still unlikely to add 3000 complete strangers to my list of contacts. My skepticism remains alive, if tempered.

As before, I’d love to hear about other’s successes and failures with LinkedIn as a tool for international business.

Post from: EveryJoe

Ok, maybe I’m LinkedIn a little bit

In any case, both of these companies are German-owned, one rather obviously and the other not so much. Now, my client is German, and I’m particularly aware of German-owned companies, but this scenario is borne out every day with companies of every possible nationality. Companies with German or other international names may well be US-owned, and companies with very “domestic” names may well be foreign-owned. Here in the US, the patriotically named American Water, a US company since the 1800s, was owned by a UK company before being purchased by its current owners, RWE of Germany, who are currently trying to get rid of it again.

In short, even if your company isn’t doing international business, they are probably doing international business, so a little geocultural literacy will serve you well.

Post from: EveryJoe

What’s in a name

Indeed the general concept applies also to Asia where, for example, whole sentences in Japanese will be different, depending on what level of politeness you need to use. Remember that old 80’s pop song “Domo arigato Mister Roboto” from Styx? “Domo” means “thanks” in Japanese; “domo arigato”, one level of politeness up, means “thank you very much”. Take it up one more notch and it is “domo arigato gozaimasu”, which would be like “thank you very much with sugar on top”. You get the picture.

Back to Europe. The distiction between the formal and informal you (in French vous/tu, in spanish usted/tu, in German Sie/du) is an understated way (and so many things in Europe are understated – concepts like Las Vegas and bling bling are children of the new world) to distance yourself from others.

One way to understand the two forms of you is to think of people whom you have never called by their first name. Mr. Becker was our elderly neighbor for almost 20 years; not even my parents would have thought to call him by his first name. If there was a formal you in English, you can bet we would have used it with him.

In general, the barriers are falling as people who would be Herr Schmitt and Monsieur LaCroix change to Klaus and Francois during meetings in English. In Sweden they have just about buried their formal “you” form, which just goes to show how progressive and egalitarian Sweden is.

Helmut Kohl, who was chancelor of Germany from 1982 to 1998, was not known for his expert command of the English language. The story goes that when he first met Ronald Reagan, he shook hands and said “you can say you to me”. Germans find this story very amusing, but there are few Americans who understood the context – Kohl was offering to Reagan that they could be informal and use first names. I wonder how the interpreters got that one straightened out?

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You can say you to me