Suntory Holdings - a large Japanese corporation - purchased Beam Inc, the company behind Jim Bean, in 2014 in order to break out of the Japanese market. WSJ reports the cross-cultural challenges they face, mostly marketing related, in order to change Jim Bean's image as a "cheap" liquor in Japan into something chic to drink.
Our favorite international "oops" moment:
We have to overcome the huge differences in the Japanese mentality and the American mentality," says Takeshi Niinami, a Harvard Business School graduate who last year became the first present of privately owned Suntory from outside the founding family. "It creates misunderstandings."
Jim Beam master distiller Fred Noe, a seventh-generation Jim Beam family member...caused some to cringe at a recent promotional event in Tokyo when he described Suntory executives as his "buddies" and embraced one of them. Japan frowns on physical contact in a business setting.Check out the article here (subscription required).
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