Trying to avoid the ire of Saudi Arabian censors, IKEA undercut its principles when it deleted women from a catalogue offered there, Wharton’s Tom Donaldson and Ann Mayer tell Arabic Knowledge at Wharton. Though marketing in the Middle East sometimes proves difficult for global companies, the experts say consulting with human rights advocates, seeking deeper cultural knowledge and investing in a unique regional offering could have avoided the reputational damage the Swedish company suffered. “The most striking failure wasn’t its lack of moral courage, but its stupidity in having fallen into the tangle in the first place,” Donaldson says.…Read More