Blunders in International Business [Paperback]

David Ricks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 14, 1993

The second edition of this highly successful book has been significantly updated and expanded. It is full of anecdotes on all aspects of international business including: * Marketing * Management * Strategy Entertaining yet informative, Blunders in International Marketing enables both students and professionals to learn invaluable lessons from others' mistakes.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"You'll get more laughs - and knowledge - out of this book than most others on global business." ?

From the Back Cover

The first edition of this book, published in 1983 was highly successful. This edition, full of wonderful anecdotes has been significantly updated and expanded, covering mistakes and blunders from all aspects of international business including:.
* Marketing.
* Management.
* Production.
* Translation.
* Strategy.
Blunders in International Business will help increase students' understanding of international business, through learning the mistakes that others have made around the world, when introducing products to other countries.
The examples featured show just how different words can translate, with often hillarious results. For example, when translated into Swedish a brand of cereal becomes 'burned farmer'!.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (June 14, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557864144
• ISBN-13: 978-1557864147
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,788,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a MUST read for all busines students, June 13, 2000

By 

Gary Gudmundson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blunders in International Business (Blackwell Business) (Paperback)

All business students should read this book. It is absolutely amazing to find out what people have already gone through to bring a business international.

Does your CEO have the audacity to believe that he will not make the same mistakes that others made? Is your marketing team prepared for each and every market? This book teaches you to carefully prepare for each and every market and not take ANYTHING for granted. Do your research, or you will be the punchline of an joke or two at some International Marketing conferences somewhere in the future.

Dave Ricks lays out everyone else's blunders in such a way that you wonder if they could have really happened. Although it is sad that these mistakes happened, the message is that without preparation people make big mistakes in international business. These major business mistakes could happen to anybody (who does not know to avoid them.)

If you are looking for anectdotes for a business class or international business curriculum, you can save yourself the trouble of research and find out what Mr. Ricks has painstakingly already researched.

Although there is no way to find out what to avoid in every market... today's business students should buy this book and read it often so they can recognize when they need help avoiding the pitfals in today's increasingly global business world.

As a biingual international manager of an import/export firm I see many of these blunders cropping up everyday. Some companies are better prepared to handle them before they become broadcast over teh whole world. Many Mexican companies I have seen do not know their translation takes on a funny twist in English. But if I told them would they believe me?... I hope reading this book will make me realize I need help myself sometimes too.

Dave Ricks is a respected faculty member at Thunderbird, one of the world's most innovative International Business Master's Programs.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Contains several urban legends; don't believe every word, May 10, 2006

By 

jeyen (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blunders in International Business (Blackwell Business) (Paperback)

In just the first half of the book, I found 5 urban legends being presented as fact (e.g., that ancient thing about "bite the wax tadpole", the one about Africans thinking that baby pictures on baby food meant the food was made of babies).

Granted, the latest update was in 1999, but the facts should have been verifiable and verified even then.

Take the anecdotes with a grain of salt.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Empty examples, February 18, 2009

By 

M. Meyer - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blunders in International Business (Paperback)

"Once upon a time there was a company which...." and "it once offered a product which's name sounded badly in another language". Unfortunately we do not know the details. Such examples are not so often but they exist in this book and one can harbor doubts whethere they are true. Some of them may be just made up. Therefore the value of this book may be not so great.