2008 3
When Culture and History turn against us
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in MV with No Comments
In this video I speak about the success of many American companies, especially about Google’s. My argument is that these companies base their strategies on simplicity and in finding out how to replicate the same business model in many different places with different cultures, in finding out what mankind has in common. European and Asian businesses many times are tied to historical prejudices that prevent them to succeed in a global scale.
This video was filmed during my presentation at EVCA‘s 25th anniversary in Madrid.
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uno on July 4, 2008 ·
Size matters.
I do not agree. I would say that one big factor in their success is the biggest local market which give them size and ressources before expanding.
So if size matters, we are about to see Indian and Chinese companies to enter in the arena of the big gorillas once their local market expands.
Europe on the contrary has the advantage to be multicultural and this gives more flexibility and a more spread wealth across the countries. It is closer to cooperation than competition, it is also the home for Open Source. This might be next necessary future success factor for a company. Small to medium but very flexible.
To finalize it on a good quote, this is like a wifi company named Fon which is small but with big global companies agreements . And all from a European country. This small part makes the whole wifi works.
So what’s the point of being big? More over, what is Big?
Un saludo
Matin on July 8, 2008 ·
Bravo Martin! America is the only country I feel like a local. Even in my home country of Iran or when I lived in France, I’m treated as a foreigner because I don’t share a common culture or background. The cultural diversity in America helps to create one of the most receptive markets for starting a global company.
pepito on July 10, 2008 ·
That echoes the old saying in OOP that runs: dont focuse on implementations but on interfaces. Interfaces are those things that a good company can fit to the required constraints without touching the very good thing behind.
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George Tuvell on July 3, 2008 ·
Great speech. One of the interesting comments was that Silicon Valley is 50% immigrants and 50% Americans. This is more evidence that talent and energy are truly global resources. Culture and political barriers restrict companies that could be great, which is very sad because the world could be more enjoyable and productive if that were not the case.