Warby Parker : The Venture Initiation Program Of The University Of Pennsylvania

America holds a high status in the modern world, and it is true that Americans are responsible for some of the world’s greatest innovations. However, our current leaders instill a certain viewpoint that creates misunderstandings about our culture on an international scale. The American lifestyle is fast-paced and hard-hitting: we are proud of our reputation for that. Many of our national ideals stem for a national pride and this behavior may seem off-putting to other nations across the world. This specific viewpoint gives off the impression of an attitude of superiority. Americans’ egocentrism concerning worldly affairs leads to others’ perception that we maintain an elitist society.

Geert Hofstede once said, “Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster.” This quote means that no culture is alike or completely cohesive and that the differences between cultures are often incompatible and combative. This quote also ties directly into what will be discussed in this research paper. An analysis of the similarities and differences between the United States and India through Hofstede’s cultural dimensions of individualism, collectivism, low uncertainty avoidance, high uncertainty avoidance, power distance, masculinity, femininity, short-term oriented culture, and long-term oriented culture.

Warby Parker’s mission statement is “to offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading way for socially- conscious businesses” (Warby Parker, 2017). In order to fulfil its mission statement, Warby Parker has found the opportunity to create and capture their values in the eyewear industry by setting low price model and providing exceptional customer service. The company targeted at keeping the prices low by cutting middleman cost through direct connection with their customers by using digital technology. They connect with their valued customers by sharing relevant, personal, and entertaining information and creating experiences (Patino,2017). Warby Parker’s Home -Try-On program is created to keep

Their biggest competitor for Warby Parker is probably Luxotica. Luxottica is a quality fashion and luxury eyewear shop which has a strong brand portfolio includes iconic propriety brands such as Ray-Ban, Giorgio Armani, Bulgari, Prada Chanel, Valentino etc. Their biggest strength is they use very innovative materials, technologies and processes and unparallelled craftsmanship to make their glasses. (luxotica.com) Also, they have locations in 22 different countries all over the world. Their price ranging from $100 to $20000.

In the words of Staurt Hall, he “finds in American culture and in America’s capacity to live with difference the best illustration of a continuous dialect between the local and the global, between the insular and the transnational. He defines culture as an embodiment of the best that has been thought and said in a society. It is the sum of the great ideas as represented in the classic works of painting, music, and philosophy that represent culture. (Hall, 9)” Hall also has observed U.S. dominance in communication and described America as the common factor of globalization.

Warby Parker is a company that focuses on designing, manufacturing, and selling inexpensive glasses to consumers. The creation of the company is partly due to the eyewear industry being controlled largely by one company, Luxottica. Luxottica sold eyewear products at an inflated price and the creators of Warby Parker thought that there should be a much less expensive alternative while still offering quality eyewear products to customers. Warby Parker was created as an alternative to Luxottica’s high prices. Many people around the world are in need of functional glasses, and a lot of those people do not have the money to be able to afford overpriced glasses. Warby Parker was established in 2010 and has been enjoying an expanding consumer base since that time.

The cultural value model that is being used in this outline is Hofstede’s Model. Although Japan and America have quite a few economic and technologic similarities, they contrast in many ways. The biggest difference between these two countries is Individualism vs. Collectivism. Hofstede himself finds that both of these cultures differ significantly on most these diminesions (Shah).

According to Hofstede, Great Britain is an individualistic country (score: 89), Brazil is a more collectivist country (score: 38) and Spain is in the middle with a score of 51.

In Mapping and Interpreting Cultural Differences, (2004) Shalom Schwartz presents another take on cultural differences. His survey included teachers and students from 70 nations and resulted in the definition of six dimensions in three pairs. Autonomy vs Embeddedness, Egalitarianism vs Hierarchy and Harmony vs Mastery. Schwartz presents his dimensions in a circle and those cultural orientations which are compatible are adjacent in the circle. Schwartz assumes that if a country is associated with egalitarianism it will at the same time put emphasize on intellectual autonomy as these dimensions share the same values, for example. This is in contrast to Hofstede’s presentation as he conceptualizes his dimensions as independent (Schwartz, 2004).

|ISSUE |Individualism-collectivism is one of the biggest dimensions of cultural variability. The findings by Gudykunst (1997) |

When I think about going to another country I think about what kind of popular food they will have, the sights to see, things to do, if they have good shopping, and so much more. Most people don’t put into consideration how the population of that country defines themselves and their relationships to others. A country can either have an individualist culture or a collectivist culture. According to Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions, individualist cultures believe being individual is important, they stress their independence, reward personal and individual treatment, and value everything about being individual (Sprague, Stuart, Bodary 3-2a). Collectivist cultures view needs and group goals as the most important thing along with focusing mainly on cooperation instead of competition. When talking about America, it is considered very

Warby Parker offers online and has a set number of showrooms in the United States. By outlining glasses in-house and offering just straightforwardly to consumers, the company lowers the expense of its glasses by a huge sum (Mitroff, 2012). The company dispatched a purchase a-pair, give-a-pair program, much like the broadly known TOMS shoes battle. For each pair of glasses sold, Warby Parker lives up to expectations with non-profit accomplices to disperse a pair to someone in need. Warby Parker raised $60 million from existing financial specialists in December, notwithstanding the $40 million it raised last January. There is no expression on whether the company plans to open up to the world at any point in the near

Does America have a personality? There are many factors that can affect someone’s personality, but America’s personality is categorized by the conflicting attitudes of nationalism and individualism. These attitudes affected America’s view towards issues of immigration. Depending on which American personality is being used determines whether or not America is been recognized as a “Salad Bowl” or a “Melting Pot” as a country. When America is being described as Nationalistic, then the country is a Melting Pot due to the focus on the assimilation of immigrants. Conversely, when America is being described as Individualistic, the nation is a Salad Bowl because of the focus of cultural retention. The debate of whether or not America’s personality is best represented by a Melting Pot or a Salad Bowl began after the turn of the century; this debate is clearly depicted in the beliefs and works of Diego Rivera and George Bellows.

The United States and China boast the two largest economies in the world but, despite this fact, these two countries have very little in common. At first glance, this may seem very obvious to most people but, what exactly is it that makes these two countries so different? How is it that such different perspectives and approaches can both lead to great success? Hofstede’s six dimensions of culture are an attempt to answer these questions and more. Dr. Geert Hofstede, studied employees of the computer firm IBM in over fifty different countries. When he examined his findings he found “clear patterns of similarity and difference along the four dimensions” (Manktelow, Jackson Edwards, Eyre, Cook and Khan, n.d.). The fact that he focused his research on solely IBM employees allowed him to eliminate company culture as a differentiating factor and “attribute those patterns to national and social differences” (n.d.). He used his findings to originally identify four dimensions, later expanded to six, that could “distinguish one culture from another” (n.d.). The six dimensions all on a scale from 0 to 100 are:

When using Hofstede, it becomes apparent that the two cultures differ regarding individualism, uncertainty avoidance and power distance. The scores indicate that Germans are individualistic and ambitious. They also want to control the future and they prefer egalitarian structures. Contrarily, the Chinese have a comparable profile, except, they are group-oriented, they accept an unpredictable future and they prefer hierarchies (("Germany in comparison with China," n.d.).