Global Strategy Requires a Meeting of Minds

The growing prominence of Asian economies on the world stage has done more than shake up the old economic order. As the world economy becomes increasingly globalized, new challenges are being thrown up by cross-cultural business interactions between East and West. In our book, Asian Versus Western Management Thinking: Its Culture-Bound Nature, we review various research perspectives, from cross-cultural management to cognitive psychology. We carried out case studies on Asian and Western managers, and conducted a further study of how Asians and Westerners make business decisions. We find two very different approaches to thinking and acting, based on different philosophies, foundations of reason and culture. We term these different ways of thinking "inductive" and "deductive," and argue that these two approaches, when understood, can be used to broaden and deepen a manager's toolbox, allowing greater strategic ability.