4. Deadly Sins?
• Patterns, wireframes, and
scaffolding
• Christianity: not following (god‘s)
moral guidance
• No biblical list, but some
references throughout new
testament
• Christian thinkers (Augustine,
Gregory the Great), monastic
authors (John Cassian, Evagrius)
and early Christian Writers
(Prudentius‘ Psychomachia)
compile lists and rank orders
• References and popularity of ‚7
deadlies‘ starts in 14th century, e.
g: Alighieri‘s Divine Comedy;
Chaucer‘s Canterbury Tales;
Hieronymus Bosch, Tizian,
Brueghel
Bosch, Seven Deadly Sins / Superbia
5. Other Traditions
• Judaism: ‚avera‘=‚crossing
over‘ - a moral trans-gression
against god or
man; three major ones.
• Hinduism: ‚papa‘ - wrongful
act which creates negative
karma
• Islam: Khati‘ah - anything
against the will of Allah; two
major forms (dhanb and
ithm) – 70 major sins
• Buddhist: men and god are
subject to universal law;
intentions and actions
against the Noble Eightfold
Path, no „sins“, but 5 crimes
and 108 defilements
Dix‚ Seven Deadly Sins
6. Today
Music:
– Kurt Weill & Bert Brecht, Seven
Deadly Sins
– Franz List, Totentanz
– Ice T‘s 7th Deadly Sin
Movies / TV:
– Bedazzled (1967, 2000)
– Seven (1995)
– 7 Deadly Sins (2014)
Comics:
– Digimon 7 Great Demon Lords in
Digimon
– Seven Deadly Enemies of Man in
Captain Marvel / DC Comics
Ice Cream:
– Eskimo/Unilever „7 Suenden“
7.
8. Pride
• Pride is deep pleasure from one‘s
own achievements; it is ego-centric,
self-loving, competitive
• Long considered deadliest of all
sins, but without pride one may
not achieve at all…
• Companies:
– Become insensitive to their
external environment
– Impose their own ways on
foreign markets
– „Ethnocentrism“ (Perlmutter
1969)
Tizian, Vanitas
9. Pride
• World‘s largest company
entered Germany in 1997
• Sins: Undifferentiated
transfer of business model:
– EDLP-strategy
– Strong integration of suppliers
– Employee policies
– Greeters, Baggers, 10-Foot-
Policy
– Non-German speaking
Managers
• Exited Germany in 2006
(91 locations, 12.000
employees, about 200 mio
US$ in losses)
10. Pride
• Part of leading British retail giant
Tesco (6,000 stores globally),
2nd largest retailer worldwide
• Sins:
• Entered USA in 2007
• Recession
• Concept based on small stores,
convenience and fresh food
• “Fresh and Easy” or “Small and
Strange”
• Undifferentiated product portfolio
• Self-check out
• Decision to leave in 2012: $1.6
billion in losses
11. Greed
• Intense interest in getting one‘s
fair share or more
• ‚Infectious greed‘ (Alan
Greenspan) also a driver behind
industriousness, wealth of nations
and free trade
• Companies:
– Assume a short-term view only
– Under-invest
– Exploit local resources
– Take quick and irrational
action
– Deploy ‚John Wayne‘-like
strategies
– „Liability of Newness“ (Cuervo-
Cazurra., 2007)
12. Greed
• Entered China in 2004
• Outsources ca. 20 % of
production
• Motivation to reduce costs and
remain competitive with its
range of high-quality toys
• Unskilled labor unable to adhere
to quality standards (cross-eyed
bears,
• Increasingly high costs of
(minimum 12 months training)
• Accelerated employee turnover
• Rising wages
• Left China in 2009
13. • Lack of interest / reluctance to
make any effort. Relax! Be
happy! Let yourself go! Drift into
complacency and melancholy
• Companies:
– Don‘t have a clear strategy
– Prepare insufficiently
– Are sloppy at implementation
– Give up too soon
– „Liability of Foreignness“
(Zaheer, 2002)
Dürer, Melencolia
Sloth
14. • Entered Germany in 1995/1996
• Sin: Lack of interest
– Ignored of German legal
environment (opening
discount)
– Made wrong location choices
in suburban malls
– After sacking German MD in
1999, no replacement, running
operations from San Francisco
– Ignored cost structure and
consumer preferences
– CEO visited Germany only
once
• Exited 2003/2004
Sloth
15. Sloth
• Opened in 1992
• Sins:
• Expectation of single market,
economic growth, “chunnel”
• Labor disputes with unions
• Visitors rejected over-priced fast
food
• Customer is not king in France
• Accusations of cultural imperialism
• Bad weather
• Attendance 25,000 / 60,000
• Close to bankruptcy in 1994
• Saved by Saudi Arabian prince
• Profitable from 2005
16. • Overindulgence, over-consumption,
waste, habitual
greed
• Companies:
– Move too far too fast
– Stretch existing resources
– Over-invest
– „Polycentrism“ (Perlmutter,
1969)
De L‘Ange, Gluttony
Gluttony
17. • Embarked on rapid
internationalization in 1970s
• Sins:
– Driven by personal motivation
of CEO of „building an
international company while
traveling“
– Served more than 70 markets
in the 1990s
– Learning on the go
– Growth from 2 products to 400
products and variations
– Ventured into new business
segments
– Built manufacturing in
Hungary, over-sized facility in
Austria
• Slipped into insolvency end
of 1990s
Gluttony
18. Gluttony
• Part of German Metro
group
• Enters China in 2010
• Sins:
– Built business model
around brand and
consumer experience
instead of products and
price sensitivity
– Flagship locations only
– Fully self-operated and no
store-in-store concepts
• Leaves China in 2013
19. • Desire to possess another's
superior quality, achievement,
or possession; resentful longing
• Wishing misfortune on others
• Companies:
– Pick the wrong markets
– Are mindless followers of
competitors
– Try to outdo others when it‘s
not necessary / over-adapt
– „Loss of an advantage“
(Cuervo-Cazurra, 2007)
Munch, Envy
Envy
20. Envy
• Enters China in 2006 with
12 stores
• Sins:
– No Do-it-yourself culture
– Abundance of cheap
labor
– Loss of status
– No room for tools
– Lack of imagination
– Lack of brand
• Leaves China in 2012
• $ 160 million in losses
21. • Anger, strong emotional
response to feeling threatened
or provoked
• Companies:
– Make impulsive, irrational
moves
– Ignore local conditions
– Seek vengeance and apply
force
– „Creation of a Disadvantage“
(Cuervo-Cazurra, 2007)
Star Trek, Wrath of Khan
Wrath
22. • Joint venture with Wahaha
Group in 1996
• Sins:
– Danone starts to shift decisions to
France
– Danone starts squeezing Wahaha
for profits
– Wahaha builds grey market
– Danone sues Wahaha;
government intervention
– In December 2007 court judgment
in favour of Wahaha; sales start to
drop significantly
– 2013 allegations of contamination,
judgement for price-fixing,
allegations of bribery
• To be continued...
Wrath
23. America‘s Next Top Model ‚Seven Deadly Sins‘
America‘s Next Top Model, Lust
Lust
• Intense wanting or desire for an
object, emotion or circumstance
• Companies:
– Have the wrong motives for
market entry
– Excessively focus on the
present
– Become blind to consequences
of their actions
– Abandon home/core markets
– „Liability of expansion“
(Penrose 1959, Cuervo-
Cazurra, 2007)
24. Lust
• Entered Romania in 2010
by acquiring CityDeal
• Sins:
– Ignored intense competition
by 2012
– Ignored digital divide
– Aggressive commission
tactics
– Failed to attract local talent
– Staffed subsidiaries with
expatriates
– Lack of local relationships
• Exits 2014
25. Lust
• Enters China in 2006,
opens first store in 2007
• Sins:
– Monumental flagship
stores
– Commission based sales
– Enters UK, Turkey, Mexico
at same time
– Financial difficulties in US
market
• Leaves China (UK,
Turkey) in 2013