When Business Ideas Become Cultural Norms
Two years ago, this blog touched upon the then-quite-new idea of the Single's Day as new haven for Chinese online consumerism. Some two years later, this "holiday" manufactured by the Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba has not only remained strong and growing as the world's largest annual event of online sales, but has also begun to spread its idea to the non-Chinese world. Out here in the depth of Southeast Asia, ecommerce firms such as Lazada has latched on to the idea, and now, trying to run with it in a decidedly unfamiliar environment for Single's Day adherents.
The author has not emphasized enough of how hostile the general social environment has become for the Chinese in this region. This is especially true for the Philippines, where the author, along with his colleagues, will ensure the smooth operation of Lazada's own Single's Day sales, amid the author's personal continued doubtfulness that the idea will take off at all in this place. Interestingly, the company management remains bullish about the prospects, forecasting some three-times of usual daily orders for the upcoming Single's Day sales.
It is by all means an optimistic assumption. But this is the very assumption that carried this company and countless others who attempted (and so far succeeding) in replicating workable business models of developed countries in these emerging markets. They have assumed, quite logically, that as incomes converge, consumerist habits converge, and as personal capital for purchases increase, people tend to purchase in the same manner for the same things. It is this belief that made it unnecessary to reinvent (and constantly adjust) the wheels, so to speak, for every market out there.
For people to solidly stand by such beliefs re-highlights one of the main themes of this blog, that of globalization. It is not simply about the logistics of making same products available in all corners of the world for the same price. But it is more about creating the social environment that makes those products as desirable in any place where it can be purchased as they are in their places of origin. For this, gradual establishment of cultural preferences, stemming from importation of social, and maybe political institutions, becomes a necessary foundation.
In this task, this company is not part of a few lone brave souls, but just another in a long line of profit-minded ventures who traced the same footsteps to spread cultures. They may have come for the selfish reasons of simply increasing profits, but in that process, they inadvertently made themselves the food soldiers of cultural change. Sometimes, such cultural invasions can be taken in an extremely obvious method, but more often than not, their instigators cannot even fathom the great change that their initial actions can spark.
Indeed, as short-term profiteers, firms and their employees take culture to be a constant in their assumptions about validity of the market. Even as they remain bullish about the prospects of increased disposable incomes, they see no reason their target consumers ought to adhere to some invented holiday that they have never heard of before. But simultaneously, because they perceive culture as a constant background noise for business transactions, they can also proceed with their initiatives unobstructed by completely decoupling business practices and culture.
On this front, the author is in admiration of the business-folks who he ultimately perceive himself to not be a part of. He has seen street peddlers who travel halfway across the world to sell products to consumers whose languages they do not speak, and he has seen products with no proven demand thrown into markets after massive investments. The willingness to risk massive financial losses just to prove the point that human beings are open to new ideas and new products that they have never encountered in the past is remarkable as a force of human progress.
In many ways, the author is glad that he is part of this adventurous group that is pushing for the inadvertent march of cultural convergence. Of course, only the surface will be scratched and there is no hope to altering the deeper differences in social behaviors overnight. But it can be agreed that reduction of fundamental differences in beliefs and ideologies is the ultimate solution for a more peaceful world, to put in a lofty way, then it is the author's belief that he is contributing positively to this overall cause. With every business trip, it is a stop closer to more sameness, less differences.
The author has not emphasized enough of how hostile the general social environment has become for the Chinese in this region. This is especially true for the Philippines, where the author, along with his colleagues, will ensure the smooth operation of Lazada's own Single's Day sales, amid the author's personal continued doubtfulness that the idea will take off at all in this place. Interestingly, the company management remains bullish about the prospects, forecasting some three-times of usual daily orders for the upcoming Single's Day sales.
It is by all means an optimistic assumption. But this is the very assumption that carried this company and countless others who attempted (and so far succeeding) in replicating workable business models of developed countries in these emerging markets. They have assumed, quite logically, that as incomes converge, consumerist habits converge, and as personal capital for purchases increase, people tend to purchase in the same manner for the same things. It is this belief that made it unnecessary to reinvent (and constantly adjust) the wheels, so to speak, for every market out there.
For people to solidly stand by such beliefs re-highlights one of the main themes of this blog, that of globalization. It is not simply about the logistics of making same products available in all corners of the world for the same price. But it is more about creating the social environment that makes those products as desirable in any place where it can be purchased as they are in their places of origin. For this, gradual establishment of cultural preferences, stemming from importation of social, and maybe political institutions, becomes a necessary foundation.
In this task, this company is not part of a few lone brave souls, but just another in a long line of profit-minded ventures who traced the same footsteps to spread cultures. They may have come for the selfish reasons of simply increasing profits, but in that process, they inadvertently made themselves the food soldiers of cultural change. Sometimes, such cultural invasions can be taken in an extremely obvious method, but more often than not, their instigators cannot even fathom the great change that their initial actions can spark.
Indeed, as short-term profiteers, firms and their employees take culture to be a constant in their assumptions about validity of the market. Even as they remain bullish about the prospects of increased disposable incomes, they see no reason their target consumers ought to adhere to some invented holiday that they have never heard of before. But simultaneously, because they perceive culture as a constant background noise for business transactions, they can also proceed with their initiatives unobstructed by completely decoupling business practices and culture.
On this front, the author is in admiration of the business-folks who he ultimately perceive himself to not be a part of. He has seen street peddlers who travel halfway across the world to sell products to consumers whose languages they do not speak, and he has seen products with no proven demand thrown into markets after massive investments. The willingness to risk massive financial losses just to prove the point that human beings are open to new ideas and new products that they have never encountered in the past is remarkable as a force of human progress.
In many ways, the author is glad that he is part of this adventurous group that is pushing for the inadvertent march of cultural convergence. Of course, only the surface will be scratched and there is no hope to altering the deeper differences in social behaviors overnight. But it can be agreed that reduction of fundamental differences in beliefs and ideologies is the ultimate solution for a more peaceful world, to put in a lofty way, then it is the author's belief that he is contributing positively to this overall cause. With every business trip, it is a stop closer to more sameness, less differences.
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