Access Business Analytics
Apple recently made headlines as it became the first U.S. firm to achieve a market value of a trillion dollars. Why didn’t companies such as Microsoft – once Apple’s fiercest competitor – beat it to the punch? Apple’s resounding success is in part due to its long-standing commitment to excellent internationalization that has allowed it to meet local market expectations since the early 1980’s. Steve Jobs and his crew were never ones to simply overlay a translated user interface onto a product and call it localized. To them, It meant re-envisioning and adapting products – and services and programs – to meet and even surpass local market preferences and practices. They did the hard work early on to support character sets and other required infrastructure to meet what audiences expected in markets like Japan. Unlike many of their competitors forty years ago, they viewed going global as much more than a linguistic exercise. Therefore, when “emerging” consumers “emerged” with the money to spend on aspirational products, Apple was ready – not only with products and platforms, but with pre-sales, marketing, post-sales, manufacturing, and logistics support in local languages through local teams. This business process globalization was in place way before the iPhone with products such as the PowerBook, the iMac, and the iPod. Based on this localized ecosystem, people worldwide were prepared to pay premium prices far above those Apple itself charged due to import taxes and other locally imposed fees.
What can organizations learn from Apple’s commitment to internationalization? Few companies will ever develop the “cool cachet” with generation after generation of consumers that Apple has attained. However, there are lessons to be learned from its decision to adopt global as one of its core strategic tenets across all teams. Here are four of them:
Organizations don’t have to implement product internationalization or business process globalization from day one. However, they do need to take these areas into account in all strategic planning initiatives – even if it is simply to officially postpone them until a later date in their evolution. When the time comes, many, if not all, teams enterprise-wide will be required to do their part. Recognizing that these areas exist at the strategic level encourages managers to start thinking sooner about the role of their teams in supporting local markets, which can only be a good thing.
Director of Buyers Service
Focuses on global digital transformation, enterprise globalization, localization maturity, social media, global product development, crowdsourcing, transcreation, and internationalization
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