IBUS

World Cafe

Cross-Cultural Product Development

(6 Slides)

Questions/Content

1. This PowerPoint presentation should be based on your “Museum Field Trip Report” and the examples of “material culture” you found.

2. Choose one exhibit and describe the cultural background of its creators (one slide).

3. Use Hofstede’s criteria in connection with Ferraro’s chapters (as far as discussed) to find out whether some of the cultural characteristics observed above are still evident today (two slides).

4. How will you use this knowledge when selling a product or service abroad? Use a product/service of your choice as an example (two slides).

5. Have you gained a new appreciation for the foreign cultures? Explain in your conclusion (one slide).

Requirements

· Include at least 3 pictures from your virtual field trip.

· Develop a minimum of 6 PowerPoint slides (in addition to the cover slide and the works cited slide).

· Use at least 4 sources/articles websites.

· Use the rubric below

· You may develop more than the required slides but will have to select the most important slides for your 5-minute presentation.

· Use articles from reputable business publications or reputable organizations only. No encyclopedias or “Wikipedia” allowed!

· It must be obvious in your PowerPoint slides where you used your sources: Use MLA format and, in addition, refer to the respective sources used on the bottom of each slide. All of the sources listed on your works cited slide have to be used in a meaningful way.

· This project requires creativity.

The guidelines above and the criteria below.

Evaluative criteria

Subject matter

· Detail orientation, comprehensiveness of answer

· Clear expression and description

· Use of management/marketing terminology

· Meaningful use of sources/articles, quality of sources

· Proof of research: works cited slide and reference to sources used on each slide

· Adherence to the guidelines above

Creativity

· Use of sources to prove statements (convincing discussion)

· Point of uniqueness - interesting viewpoints

· Creative use of examples/exhibits from your virtual field trip

· Authentic pictures viewed as part of the virtual experience ( not just downloaded from a website)

· Integration of colorful charts and meaningful pictures on each slide ( not attached at the end or in separate slides)

· Visually interesting and well-designed slides (size of font 18, contrast between text and background, not too much or too little text per slide)

· Use of 5 keywords/lines and short explanatory phrases of about 5 to 10 words (do not use full sentences, reformulate your sources, 4 or 5 words per slide without explanation are not sufficient)

Structure and Logic of Discussion

· Logical connection between arguments

· Use of format as listed under “questions/content” and “requirements”

· Referral to all sources used

· Avoid direct citations (no more than one)

· Inclusion of all sources used (works cited slide)

Grammar, Spelling, and Mechanics

· Grammar

· Spelling/Typing/Punctuation

· Proper cover slide, headlines, paragraphs, spaces, indents – consistency and professional design

This is the part you helped me last time when writing the Taiwan museum virtual tour. Maybe this might help.

Virtual Field Trip Report

If you come to Taiwan, you can visit the Palace Museum and take your choice. There are endless masterpieces of painting, calligraphy, ceramics, ands stone carving. Where to begin? Everybody knows about the glories of Chinese calligraphy and painting, so allow me to mention a favorite of mine that is often neglected: bronzes. Ferro highlights that during the first and second millennia BCE, the Chinese produced magnificent bronzes, the like of which the world has never seen again. Here is a photo I took on a recent visit to a bronze vessel, dating to about 400BCE. Take a moment to admire the form, and then the intricacy of the geometric decoration. You could walk by it without a glance, but if you stop and take a deep look, it’s a masterpiece. And the Museum has a thousand more. Of course, if there are people depicted, then regional fashions immediately tell you which culture it's from. And if there is writing, then that's also a very easy way to tell which culture it's from. According to Ferraro, traditional Chinese culture is a “defeatist” culture, the realization that men are but a small part of the greater dynamics of nature, life, and destiny. Men propose god disposes of - although this exists in the Western culture, this saying is greatly appreciated and accepted deep in the psyche of the Chinese. Thousands of years of written history and literature are a testament to the Chinese surrender to the greater force of destiny. Great imperial dynasties that fell because of catastrophic natural disasters, upright heroes who met tragic endings, great aristocratic families with unworthy descendants who blew away the family fortune and status, lovers who could be together because of having no fate, ambitious scholars who struggled all their life but failed nevertheless in their endeavor, destined to live a life incommensurate with their great talent, and the list goes on.

Such historical tales are then transplanted onto Chinese literature, art, and cinema even up to modern times. All pessimism aside, the Chinese are the great epitome of a culture full of paradox. It acknowledges destiny’s all-encompassing power but will never resign itself to idleness. Ferraro highlights that art offers a perspective that contains in similar proportion great optimism and appreciation for the beauty of life, family, and material comfort. This is reflected by their hard work, perpetually and incrementally improving their living condition, fueled by pragmatism and they are always looking forward to a brighter, better future and life for their family and themselves. Chinese stories, themes, beliefs, and ideas. When art becomes a business, you identify the undervalued piece and sell it at the real price that it deserves.