FRONTIERS
Regional adaptation of multinationals
Serge LafranceYanik Deschênes
Terry Flynn
Abstract
Wal-Mart is the biggest retail company in the world. For a company of that size, with international reach, the question is raised when it comes to standardizing vs. adapting business procedures to the geographic markets in which it evolves. Standardization has the effect of making business procedures easier for companies from supply to market release. For its part, adaptation allows a company to take a clientele's cultural differences and regional preferences into account, by the same token facilitating this clientele's loyalty. Wal-Mart, like the majority of large-scale companies, standardizes many of its business procedures, but also adapts them to most regional differences worldwide. Several examples of adaptation will be presented during this conference, including the Quebec case. In the past few years, there is no doubt that regional adaptations in Quebec have produced results for Wal-Mart's corporate reputation.
Serge Lafrance
Holder of a Doctoral Scholarship in marketing (University of Montpellier, France) and a Masters in Marketing (MSc, University of Sherbrooke, Canada), Serge Lafrance is Vice-President Marketing for Leger Marketing. Leger Marketing is the leading Canadian-owned market research and polling firm in Canada. He has acted as consultant for a number of major companies in the past fifteen years, particularly in the areas of retail trade, branding, and corporate reputation management. Moreover, he has developed a superior model of corporate reputation management, the GRI (Global Reputation Index). He has taught several university courses for the EMBA, MBA and MSc programs, including courses in Management, Commercial Decisions, Marketing Policies, and International Marketing. He has published articles, given lectures, and led seminars in Canada, the US, Chile, Argentina, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Serbia, Portugal, North and West Africa. He received the Award for Best Paper from the Canadian Journal of Marketing Research in 2006 and was nominated “Best Professor" two years in a row (Sherbrooke University, Canada 1993 and 1994.)
Yanik Deschênes
Yanik Deschênes is Director of Corporate Affairs for Wal-Mart Quebec. In this capacity, he manages the issues and the external communication strategy for the most high profile company in the province. As Wal-Mart Canada’s French-speaking spokesperson, Yanik is also responsible for the Company’s community, governmental and public relations. According to Léger Marketing, Wal-Mart’s image has greatly improved over the three years that Yanik has been with the Company. Yanik has over 10 years of experience in communications. Before joining Wal-Mart, he was director of Optimum, the public relations unit of Cossette Communication Group. Prior to that, he was a consultant with NATIONAL Public Relations and Manager of media relations for the Canadian Space Agency. Yanik has twice received the prize for excellence in public relations awarded by the Société des relationnistes du Québec (Prix Équinoxe 2001 and 2003). Yanik is a member in good standing of the Quebec Bar. He holds a BA in Law and a certificate in industrial relations from Université Laval.P.
Terry Flynn
Dr. Terry Flynn is one of Canada’s leading public relations scholars and practitioners.
In August 2004, Terry completed his doctoral degree in Mass Communications, specializing in Crisis and Risk Communication, at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. He also has a Masters of Science in Communications Management from Syracuse University.
Terry is an expert media, risk and crisis communication trainer.
For more than twenty years, Terry built an international public relations practice, specializing in environmental communication and community relations with such companies and organizations as: the Navy Environmental Health Center, the Chemical Manufacturers' Association, the U.S. Army, the Defense Logistics Agency, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Allied Signal, the American Gas Association, the Edison Electric Institute, Florida Power Corporation, the Region of Niagara, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, and the Town of Walkerton, Ontario.
During his professional career, Terry's work has been internationally recognized by: Canadian Public Relations Society, the International Association of Business Communicators, the Community Relations Awards program and the Apex Awards for Publication Excellence.
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