Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

ecognition of the location and extent of natural resources of separated regions of theworld in combination with knowledge in transport geography is precondition for goodbusiness. The former Soviet Union has a unique combination of natural resources andan advantageous geographical position and wide uncommitted markets. This is thebiggest railway market in the world. It is for this reason for example that Americancompanies sell in that market (Kvint, 1990).When multinational companies evaluate the possibility for developing their business,they need to thrash out factors like: geographical position, language community,structure of population – ethnic, religion, age, education (Donnelly et al., 1992). Thefollowing examples illustrate why we should know about stereotypes, particularityof language and ethnic structure and integrate them into training:• the lemon spray furniture polish of S.C. Johnson & Son has very low sales inJapan. The population of the country does not buy sprays, because they think itsmells like a W.C. disinfectant used in the Second World War. Once the companydecreased the amount of lemon essence in the spray their sales increased (ibid).• in Japan the Barbie doll of “Mattel, Inc.” does not have big sales. The reason wasthat the doll was too tall, too long-legged and it had blue eyes. After cosmeticchanges – short body, brown eyes and an Asian figure, they sold 2 millions dollsin 2 years (Alden, 1984; Thackray, 1985).• Coca Cola brand changed their name, due to the fact, that in Chinese it means “bitethat wax tadpole”. “Coca Cola” marketing experts didn’t realise that few Chinesepeople speak English (Alden, 1984; Thackray, 1985).• “Dunkin’ Donuts” realised that Japanese don’t like to eat doughnuts with sugar,so the company creates little doughnuts with little sugar (Kvint, 1990).Many international managers didn’t understand the different specific cultural,language and ethnic characteristics of countries around the world. In that way wethink that these mistakes can be prevent with help of geographical courses.Linking business needs to Geography coursesMany companies before buying or building a factory are interesting in the structureof labour force in different regions. They are interested in sex and age structureof population now and in the future. From that future labour force depend of thecompany. On the other hand educational structure has an affect on possibility for hirehighly skilled workers. Many of the companies want to know the spatial behaviourof the customers. A GIS course could help with this.Ethnic structure is very important for defining culture particularity of labourforce, because on that depend apposite decisions which managers take connectingwith staff motivation. Although, there are specialists, whom companies take foreducating managers, we think that the international managers must have goodgeography knowledge.The religious structure of population is very important for business planning, goalsand work of multinational companies. For example in Muslims countries, peoplethink that destiny define their future, not the personal enterprise. That thinking isunder the influence of religion. It is therefore important that companies should be181