BBSB4103

FAKULTI PERNIAGAAN DAN PENGURUSAN

JANUARI 2012

BBSB 4103

CROSS CULTURE MANAGEMENT

PUSAT PEMBELAJARAN

PPW J

1.0

Introduction. In 1930s, the term of cross cultural had somehow emerged. It was told that the wording was found out by George Peter Murdock because of the Cross-Cultural Survey that had been done by him. He is one of the Yale University anthropologists. He had

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found out that the core of cross culture is to understand and establish how people from different cultures communicate with each other and how they treat other culture. For this assignment, this is mostly focused on company that have involved in a cross cultural segment. I had chosen Johor Premium Outlets (JPO). JPO is located at the intersection of the North-South Expressway and the Second Link Expressway. As the Kulai-Second Link Expressway is done, JPO is highly accessible to all traffic going to and from Johor and Singapore. JPO is also a short distance drive from Senai International Airport, about 3 hours drive from Kuala Lumpur and about an hours drive from the city of Singapore.

JPO is located in Kulai area. Kulai was a smalls region back in the days, when most of its economy activities mostly involved the agricultural sector. The main business of people there are palm oil and rubber estate. The government had also created a FELDA (Federal Land Development Authority) within the Kulai area which is named Felda Taib Andak. Kulai town is located along the old trunk road linking Kuala Lumpur

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and Johor Bahru. On the demographic factor, the Chinese are concentrated in Kulai and Senai Town while the Malay are mostly in the Felda settlements, the Indians are mostly working in the factories or running business.

Kulai sub district was upgraded to a full-fledged district on January 1st 2008 and has been renamed as Kulaijaya District. The administrative centre of Kulaijaya these days is still under developing process which is named Indahpura.

2.0

Prominent Building or Architecture. JPO was indeed a new place that had been officially opened in 1st December 2011 and was officially launched by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak. It

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was a new kind of premium outlets that is currently the biggest in south-east-asia when it is fully develop. Currently the number of shops opened is around 80, and when JPO is fully utilized, it will open another 120 shop lots selling premium brands at a discounted price daily. Here are some pictures of the current JPO building structure.

From the expressway view.

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As we can see in the pictures above there is a lot of foreign cultural architecture design in this place. There is almost nothing at all that resemble the Malaysia culture at all. This is done in order to create a whole new experience for the shopper around Malaysia and also for the tourist that come to JPO.

Here is some of the description of the buildings and surroundings of JPO. The Landscape.

The landscape of this place is quite satisfying. The grass was trimmed nicely. There is also some kind of palm trees (looks like a dates tree which is famous in the Middle East country) that had been planted in certain area which give the oasis feelings. They had also constructed small fountains in certain area which indeed amplified the feeling of the oasis. The landscape is very relaxing, whereby they did put some of the park bench in an orderly manner so the shopper may rest their feet. The open air surroundings also create good free environment feelings to the visitor of JPO. They

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also hat put a lot of dustbin in order to maintain the cleanliness of this place. The maintenance staff had done their job quite well in this place. It is hardly to see any kind of litter around the area because they did put many cleaner in this place. It was so clean that the visitor might think twice to litter bugger.

The Buildings.

The buildings in JPO are somehow identical to the Italian style, whereby the rooftop is almost identical. Perhaps they did this in order to make sure the foreigner who came to these outlets some kind of international feelings because most of the shop here did sell the item or merchandise that is already famous worldwide. Perhaps if they put the buildings as traditional Malaysian styles it will backlash the main objectives of JPO.

JPO roof.

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Italian roof.

From the pictures we can see JPO is also trying to make their buildings arrangements identical to the Italian style buildings. Where the arrangement is not symmetrical, this might give the surroundings a change from the local style. The roof is also not leveled thus making is quite have its own style that is different from the other shopping mall in Malaysia. The Park.

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The park that is located within the JPO is quite refreshing. They also put some big fans that spray mist of water during hot weather. They also did put some benches in an orderly manner to make sure the visitor did have a place to seat down and relax their feet. JPO also did put some water dispenser for free for its visitor, who can say no to a free refreshments? Evan though, the trees are not fully grown yet, this place somehow will be covered by shades of trees in a few years time as they did planted some trees that will cover most of the park spot in a few tears time.

The Surroundings.

The surroundings within JPO are quite refreshing because this kind of shopping center is very new to the Malaysian. JPO is also the largest premium outlets in South East Asia. Since JPO does open its shops for some company that sell food and

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beverages, JPO have its own potential to become a place where people can eat, relax and shopping at the same time. This is important so that it will not only attract those will deep pocket but also try to attract the people that might need some time to relax their body with the convenient and relaxing place.

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The Interior design. The shops

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The interior design as we can see in the pictures above is mostly on the modern kind of shop. The tenant is somehow trying to design the shop that way so that in can be the new kind of attraction. The tenants also have the full authority to design their shop as necessary. But the doors and the main entrance of their shop is untouchable. Evan the small signboard above the door is at minimal to give the vintage look. Just a logo is allowed. As we can see in the shop there are some with space large enough and some are packed with stuff. The size of shop acquired by tenants also differs. The major brand will go to the bigger shop meanwhile the smaller brand name acquire smaller shops. This is perhaps the way business is going on here. The cafs however deal with their own concept in creating their own atmosphere to attract the customer. The picture above is captured inside the food court. The chairs itself are made of plastic and have the futuristic design and also feel quite comfortable for the customer to sit back and enjoy their dish. However, when Im about to approach the office at the ground floor, the security guards are asking me for a special guest pass. Because of that I cant access the office because of did not have the pass that are needed to do so.

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The public convenient

The water dispenser, as the pictured shown above are located nearby the toilet and it is quite interesting because the water is chilled and taste good too, and best of the best is the visitor can have it for free. Most of the shopping complex located in Malaysia will charge for water even the toilets need to pay RM 0.20 per entry. At JPO, the toilet is free of charge and the toilet is very clean. Too clean that the smokers will think twice before smoking inside the toilet.

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The visitors who pay a visit to JPO will also be entertained by the music background that had been continuously on air till JPO is closed. The music also can be heard at the car parking lot, whereby the management did put some speakers at the strategic location on top of the lamppost, similar to what Jusco had been offered these days. It gives some refreshing moment and give the ambience of lavish in accordance with the JPO shops which sell premium brands all over the place. There are also water fountains that give the fresh feeling to the visitor even though it just non natural. Some of the kids even play there as assume it as something fantastic. The administration seems to let those kids play with it as it is very shallow to drown them. These fountains come in two type, the one with the small pool look alike and the one that spit water from the ground in a rhythmic manner, it give the exclusive feeling to the visitor and they did put some park bench around that place. So that the visitor may refresh themselves while sitting in the bench and watching their kids playing around the fountains. In term of safety, JPO had place certain CCTV in certain area in order to prevent crime to happen, they also did put security guards on round in order to prevent

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anything bad from happen. During the night, JPO is also very bright; they did not even turn of the light at the main tower, promotional purpose perhaps. The parking lot also is quite large and can cater thousands of cars at the same moment. Especially during the weekend when the Singaporean and the tourist may come in large numbers either by car or by bus. JPO during the night,

During the night JPO is quite bright. We can see from afar the JPOs lime light. People also love to shop during the night as it is quite cooler rather than the day. JPO does close its door at 10.00pm and reopen for business at 10.00am.

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4.0

Analysis on the importance of these artifacts to the culture. JPO somehow had placed itself as a new benchmark in the way people shopping. The concept is almost bazaar alike but with a little twist of modern and sophisticated concept. We can see this clearly in the building design and the way they treat the visitor like a VIP. 4.1 Importance of these artifacts to the culture. The impact of JPO to the culture is currently not that obvious but we can see most of the visitor does behave better in this place. Most of the smokers did not throw away their cigarettes bud randomly, but they did put it in the proper bin. The water dispenser might look kind of normal to certain people but on the other side we may see it differently. It was an effort to educate people that the best drink is always plain water and you may refill your water container for free here. The merchandise that had been sold here somehow are very high standard to the middle income people, it might suit the higher income earners, but actually this is the place where the middle income can afford some branded stuff because the main point of this place is to sell premium brands at a discounted price daily. So, it may effects the nearby culture the latest fashion that currently in in the fashion world. JPO also indirectly does provide job opportunity to the local people. The people who work at JPO mostly are well dressed. Most of them need to dress like that in because of the companys work ethics. The indirect impact is the employee may now how to dress properly and he or she might teach their family on how to do so. 4.2 The disadvantage of the artifacts, JPO somehow have it own certain weakness its design, the fan somehow cant contain the hot weather. There is also not enough signboard for people to find out where exactly is the place. I for example seems cant find a way in to the place. They need to put more sign so that people know where they need to go to JPO.

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The other disadvantage of JPO is that they did not have convenience store such as seven eleven, this might somehow did not give the visitor options to buy some smaller items when needed. The parking fee is somehow too high at RM3.00 per entry. As a new place, a lower parking rate will help attract more people to come. The parking spot somehow are not covered. In case its a rainy day, people have to run their way under the rain in order to get back to their car. 5.0 Conclusion As a conclusion, JPO is a building with lots of unique idea and still in the process of evolving there is still a humongous room for improvements for the JPO itself to be more successful. JPO also has the positive effects to the culture as it provides job opportunity and also a place to hang out or dine. JPO also can be an interesting place to work with as the customer might be from the local people or tourist, so as a one of tourist attraction, the worker way of treating their customer may reflect the social way of Malaysian. It is also a rumor that JPO will add up another 120 shop lot in near future. That means more jobs and business opportunities for the people locally. As for improvement, JPO can improve their parking lots fee and at least provide a rain cover for people to access their vehicle. This is important because the structure of JPO parking area is not underground, but in an open space. So people need to walk for at least 10metres to reach the nearest parking spot. Imagine in a rainy weekend you need to get back to the car that is parked about 50 meters from the entrance of JPO. For sure the visitor will get soaked wet, or theyll think twice before coming to JPO in a rainy season. In order to work at JPO, one must at least know how to speak English fluently because most of the potential buyer is tourist and the need for English is a must in order to communicate well with them. This will also encourage the local business outside of JPO or the nearby town which is Kulaijaya or Johor Bahru. People who are currently waiting for their flight may also be able to go to JPO because of the distance are quite near. JPO is also have a big potential to become a major success in Malaysia. As the prospect of Wilayah Pembangunan Iskandar is rising rapidly and the development of Legoland is about to finish it is not impossible that one day JPO will become one of the most famous tourist attraction and will flourish the economy of local people there.

2,542 words

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