Cross Cultural Management Report On Nandos Cultural Studies Essay

The operation of business on a global scale requires that firms should

cultivate their international business by respecting the national

differences in the countries where they expand to.

This is what Nando’s had failed to observe. It has rigidly and excessively stuck to its corporate culture exhibited in South Africa. It failed to note that South African ‘s national culture is not the same thing as what applies in countries in European and Asian states .

Also , the Nando ‘s management in the South African headquarter had given no room for the management of its firms in other countries to operate freely this has given them no room for innovative strategic marketing planning in observance to the environment in which they operate in .

The national culture of South Africa has greatly influenced the corporate culture of the Nando ‘s organization and it thus constituted a negative impact when its adherence and transfer to other national culture that is not compatible , led to the unprofitable business operations in these countries .

The level of competition in the fast food industry in contemporary times is getting tense, with expansion in big firms and new entrants to the business.

Issue#2

“Advertisement issue in Australia and South Africa”

Nando’s is known in South Africa for its humorous but often controversial adverts. One such television advert from 2000, involved a blind woman being led into a pole intentionally and knocked unconscious by her guide dog, which then proceeded to eat the chicken that the woman had just purchased. This caused uproar from people who were concerned that the blind would be offended.

The South African Advertising Standards Authority called for the withdrawal of the advert. Several blind people were quoted in the media as finding the advert amusing

In Australia, Nando’s ran an advertising campaign based around the 2002 political controversy regarding the mandatory detention of illegal immigrants. The detainees had been waging a hunger strike campaign, even resorting to physically sewing their lips closed. Nando’s adverts proclaimed that the strikers “decided to unsew their lips after hearing the news that with every Nando’s quarter chicken combo, Nando’s are giving away an extra quarter chicken free”. Melbourne’s Sphere Advertising, said that the ad was designed to spark controversy, saying that they knew that “there’s a section of our audience that’s going to be uncomfortable…but we want to evoke a response”.

In 2007, there was further controversy in Australia when Nando’s aired a sexually explicit advertisement; centered around a family whose mother figure was also a pole dancer. Despite complaints to have it removed, the Advertising Standards Bureau ruled that it did not contain excessive nudity for its M rating. Currently, this advert is still causing a heated debate. It ranges from virulent opposition to Nando’s on various blogs to modest reviews in some Australian online directories.

Most recently they have created a cheeky campaign for their new Tropico Burger with the former football star Warick Capper as the face of the new promotion. Capper asks the question, “Whose buns does the sun shine out of the most? Mine or the Tropico Burger?” They have developed a catalogue of commercials on the Nando’s Australia Advertising website.

During the South African national elections of 2009, Nando’s made an advert lampooning ANC Youth League president Julius Malema by using a puppet that resembled him. Malema’s lawyers sued Nando’s and the original advert was removed. However, an altered version was released, with the puppet’s face pixelated and the voice altered. The puppet used in the advert was later sold at auction for R100,000 which was donated to an educational charity.

Issue#3

“How to retain cultures and values while expanding abroad”

One of the biggest challenges for Nando’s was seen as how to retain their culture and values while expanding abroad. As Jane Hume related: My key task is to keep our culture burning within the expanding South African and global context.

We want to be global but local, big but small, and decentralized with central reporting andcontrol. Above all, we must retain our close family centred culture, our core values, in the process of globalization, yet adapt to very different cultures. A second challenge for Nando’s lay in how to build critical mass in foreign markets. Stores overseas had to begin with simple store marketing, just as South African stores did when Nando’s began.

In most countries, people were not familiar with Portuguese food, and their advertising had to be a lot more educational than was the case in South Africa. Nando’s wanted this education to be done with the same tone, fun and irreverence that was typical for the brand at home.

Recognizing the potential pitfall, however, McKenzie noted that no attempt was made to translate humour from South Africa to other countries.They have to find their own level of humour.

It is very much a cultural thing. Their advertising should be topical. Only they know the burning issues in their country, the areas that would attract most attention. But it must be packaged in the Nando’s way. It was assumed that humour and irreverence were sound positioning strategies worldwide.

Issue#4

Is Nando’s haram or halal….Issue arises in Pakistan and Malaysia

“A mail from a customer who confidently state with some evidence that nando’s is not halal”

Dear Friends, 

AOA I am posting an email(un-edited)received from a relative.Comments of brothers will help.To me beside”NOT HALAL” the acts are “CRUAL” in a society which claims to be flag bearer of humanity.Commercialization (for cost saving,profits)to save some money cannot be used to induce “ZULAM” on livings.Here is the text received.

Councillor Salim Mulla 

Chair Regeneration 

Town Hall, Blackburn 

BB1 7DY 

01254 585321 01254 260208 Email: salim.mulla@blackburn.gov.uk

Asalaamu’alaikum Brother and Sisters,

After a recent meeting with HMC (Halal monitoring committee) I can confirm that the chicken served by “Halal” Nandos outlets still is NOTHALAL. HMC personally inspected the slaughterhouse of Freemans and came up with this conclusion. My point of contact is Haroon Rashid.

Their chickens are all electrocuted, the power is that much that some of the brains explode and so do nerve endings. They don’t do ziba as the chickens flap around too much and it leads to their wings getting damaged.

This is definitely not Halal and not the way that Allah says to treat these animals. An extract taken from the Guardian (astaghfirullah) website on the issue of fast-food taking the case of Freeman’s who is the supplier of Nandos. “Newent sits in folds of lush countryside at the far western reach of the Cotswolds… hidden from view, is Freemans of Newent.

Clifford Freeman and his cousin own this poultry abattoir. It is the largest Halal plant in Britain , employing more than 250 people, slaughtering 300,000 chickens a week, and after considerable 

persuasion and hesitation Freeman has agreed to show me how it is done.

The birds are collected from farms at night, transported to the site in the early hours of the morning, and kept in darkness until 

they are ready to be killed. Workers hang them upside down by their feet in shackles, suspended from a conveyor belt, or ‘line’, which then dangles them through an electrified bath.

Their heads are submerged, and a high-frequency current in the water stuns them. The line keeps moving, taking the birds on to the slaughter area, where three men are standing ready to cut their throats”.

Issue#5

“Issue in U.A .E where people are highly responsible and human oriented”

Dear All,

here some informations i got today.

I m a regular customer of Nando`s in the Greens. I like the food and (till this day) the concept of Nando`s.

Even the home delivery service it was always good.

BUT…what i heard today made me very angry!!

The staff of Nando`s in the Greens have to work daily minimum 12 hours, without to get any payment for the overtime (btw..it is against the rules of U.A.E to do so) furthermore almost all of the staff would like to leave the company asap, because of the Manager there and his behavior.

Actually there`s one case, where a Lady from the Philippines after 3 years worked as a waiter, wants to leave Nando`s to start a new job in a other company. I saw her crying and asked her what`s wrong with her.

She explained me her problem.

Her previous contract (incl. labor card, viza and so on) with Nando`s in the Greens is expired and as per the rules of U.A.E, she can leave Nando`s and start to work somewhere else where ever she wants.

The problem is the Manager of that branch in the Greens. He is trying to force her to stay there and to renew the contract. They signed already the letter of resignation (both the Lady and the Manager), but still the Manager is forcing her and telling her lies so that she have to stay there and work. His problem is the lack of staff, that is why he wants her to stay there.

That behavior of the Manager is inacceptable!!

I gave the Lady my phone number and will support her in that case.

I have some powerful relatives here in the U.A.E. and until now (Thanks God) i never needed their help, but in that case i will call them and will ask them to help me/us.

Anyway…i wont visit any Nando`s anymore. Such a concept of modern slavery i wont support!!

I will inform all of my friends and relatives about and tell them not to go there anymore!

Regards

H.Resad

Issue#6

“Controversies in India regarding their taste”

Nando’s has opened its branch in India recently in 2010. Only one branch of Nando’s is operating in India though India is a very large country and highly populated. The main issue which Nando’s has to come across is that majority of the Indians are vegetarian and they don’t eat chicken because of their customs and religion. Where as Nando’s is a restaurant for chicken lover and that is the main biggest draw back to Nando’s.

Once it happens with Mc donalds that they open their branch in a very wrong area where majority of the people were vegetarian and because of which they face the loss and it all leads to bad publicity that is why Nando’s open their one branch and they couldn’t have the advantage over the large population because Nando’s wanted to play safe

Issue#7

Cultural discrimination in Saudi Arabia

Nandos is also operating in Saudi Arabia but they aren’t that successful due to some reasons. As we all know that Arabs are known not be efficient and unproductive people. Thus, less people are hired from Saudi Nationals as employee and waiters and more are hired on international basis as they are considered to be more efficient and more productive. Therefore, there is a cultural discrimination problems leading to cultural issues. As it has been disliked by Saudis as more international are hired rather than locals.

Through a survey it was been found out that among Nando’s employees only 30 percent Saudi were hired and the majority were internationals. The consequences of this discrimination were really bad as it led to a very bad publicity for Nando’s.

Lessons and the reasons of their growth

A global brand talks about growing the right way

http://www.monkeydish.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/article_main_photo/articles/Nandos-Chicken.jpg

How do you build a global restaurant chain? Robbie Brozin, the founder of $1-billion-a-year Nando’s Chicken, ended the educational component of the Restaurant Leadership Conference with some specific tips for attendees.

Nando’s specializes in Portuguese-style chicken at its 1,000 stores, only four of which are located in the United States. The chicken is grilled and spiced with peri peri, a hot sauce widely known in Nando’s home base of South Africa.

Brozin said he’ll open three more stores this year in his New World foothold of Washington, D.C., guided by what he’s learned from operating on four continents.

Here are some of the lessons he shared with the 1,400 executives in attendance:

“You can’t build great brands with advertising. At the end of the day, it’s the people.” Nando’s looks for hires that are “a little different.”

“We spend an inordinate amount of money to motivate our staff. We have a saying: Happy staff equals happy customer equals happy bank manager.”

How Nando’s motivates its employees can vary greatly from market to market (its strongholds are Australia, with about 300 stores; the United Kingdom, 300 stores; and South Africa, also with 300). The constants are an emphasis on having fun and “making a difference” to the people who please customers one quarter chicken at a time. Partying is encouraged.

“Design can change a culture. [But] everything you design has to be about the people.” He cited such people-pleasing possibilities as the look of the uniforms.

“You have to be profitable in America, and you have to have it profitable in Australia.” The means are often very different, Brozin noted. “Yet the brand has to have a common thread.” Programmed into the DNA of every Nando’s is the focus on chicken and the staff that serves it.

Indeed, the absolute key to Nando’s success, especially in the early days, was focus, Brozin stressed. He never forgot the objective, or the means to that end: “At the end of the day, you have to have an amount of passion. But you also have to have an amount of commitment to making money.”

Recommendations

Thus for organization like Nando’s the need to observe people ‘s custom, taste , national culture in carrying out its strategic marketing this is germane for their effective and successful operations as they expand the business .

To overcome the issue in India, Nando’s should open their outlet in the area where there are less vegetarian and they should introduce more new food stuff which doesn’t contain chicken in it and should go fir more vegetables item. And while doing advertisement they should focus on stuff which doesn’t contain chicken so that Nando’s don’t conflict with their custom and religion.

To overcome the issue in Saudia, they should hire more Saudis rather than foreigners. In order to increase the efficiency and productivity of Saudi’s they should arrange more training programs and should give them more and better training in that way they can increase their productivity and they don’t have to hire the people from outside and this how they can overcome this problem.

To overcome the problems regarding Halal and Haram which is mostly concerned by the Muslim countries such as Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Bangladesh? Nando should spent more on advertising so as to ensure people that the chicken food provided by Nandos is Halal and not Haram. As many people consider their chicken as Haram due to which they have stopped eating it. Therefore, in order to avoid such bad publicity nandos should make people aware of the fact and should provide fool proof reasons that the chicken offered to them is Halal and not Haram

Nando’s had failed to observe. It has rigidly and excessively stuck to its corporate culture exhibited in South Africa. It failed to note that South African ‘s national culture is not the same thing as what applies in countries in European and Asian states . To overcome this issue they should cultivate their international business by respecting the national differences in the countries where they expand to

Nando’s is known in South Africa for its humorous but often controversial adverts. This controversies create a lot of problems in South Africa and Australia to overcome this problem they should make different ad’s in different countries and all those ad’s should be within the limitation of their culture and should be that much decent that it is acceptable by everyone.

They can solve the issue in U.A.E by chaging their manger because the mangaer behavior with the employees were not good and he was not being fair with them and they were nt evn paid for the over time because of which people were running away from Nando’s and no one was ready to work over there. This was even affecting their sales because when customer came to know about the unfair with the employees they were so human oriented that they went on protest against nandos which resulted in bad publicity