« Quitting Time in America | Main | English as a Second Language »
March 13, 2006
It's a large world after all
Like JoElla, I've been on the road for the last month or so. I've done work in London, Warsaw, Stavanger (Norway) and Cape Town and touched ground a number of times in other locations. But while JoElla's most recent posting speaks to her being surrounded by Americans, and though there have been at least a few Americans at every stop, what's impressed me in this latest jaunt is the degree to which the United States is really an island in a much larger world.
It's easy to forget, at home in "the States," to how large an extent the United States is not front-and-center in the thinking of the rest of the world.
In all the groups I've spoken with, in every conversation, every interview, one theme has been consistent: the most pressing concerns are the concerns closest to home. Not a stunning revelation, at least on an intellectual level, but stunningly easy to forget...because the issues closest to home in the United States are the issues that feel the most relevant to Americans. Naturally, Americans assume that they're of equal import to the rest of the world. And naturally, we're wrong.
If you want it all--compelling, differentiating, resonant recruitment ads--and a truly global employment brand position, there's only one way to get it. By listening locally.
Posted by davidkippen at March 13, 2006 05:03 PM