How to fix culture clashes in global teams

Alicia Clegg looks at examples in which the challenges to effective cross-cultural communication were identified.

Has Twitter lost its wings?

Twitter has been struggling for some time now to adequately define itself in the social media sphere and set itself up as a real contender for market share. There doesn't appear to be a concerted marketing strategy which has led to a stagnation in user numbers and confusion over its usage, which means that Twitter is struggling to clearly define its market share. Can it compete with successful rivals such as Facebook and Snapchat, or as The Economist argues, has it let its chance fly by?

Multinational businesses grow faster than emerging national economies

In a recent survey of the top 200 economic entities, many of the smaller emerging economies have been replaced by corporations. The slowdown of the Chinese economy has reduced the growth of many nations from Africa, Asia and South America, while large corporations continue to grow rapidly. The survey compiled Global Justice Now an anti-poverty charity reports that the 10 biggest corporations – including Walmart, Apple and Shell – make more money than most countries in the world combined.

Entrepreneurship in the USA

Recent figures published by the Kauffman Foundation indicate a continuing decline in new business formation in the USA. There is also a pattern of regional disparity, with just 20 counties generating half of net new businesses between 2010 and 2014. Several explanations have been suggested including high levels of personal debt, increasing regulation and difficulty of accessing venture capital.