Global Glance: November 23, 2015

A quick look at intriguing international stories

By John Bostwick, Managing Editor, Radius

Welcome back to Global Glance. This week we look at:

• Thanksgiving holidays around the world
• How Marriott’s recent acquisition highlights the importance of a large global footprint
• The world’s first international rugby star

Thanksgiving Holidays around the World

One of the intriguing aspects of working at a global company is learning about unfamiliar statutory holidays granted to coworkers based in other countries. Some of these are widely known, like the UK’s Boxing Day on December 26, so-called because traditionally employers gave their employees a “Christmas box” (i.e., a tip or a gift) the day after Christmas. (Though as this Time article explains, the holiday may have gotten its name from church donation boxes.)

So, you may know about Boxing Day. But did you know Japan has a Coming of Age Day in January, which, as International Business Times explains, “encourages new adults to join society as responsible individuals”? Or that Brazilians take off for Black Awareness Day each November “to celebrate a regained awareness by the black community about their great worth and contribution to the country”? Or that China has not one but two statutory holidays that run for five consecutive business days — National Day (aka “Golden Week”) in October and the Lunar New Year (or Spring Festival) in February? (Businesses expanding into China take note, because you’ll be on the hook for those benefits obligations.)

The US, of course, has only one multiple-day national holiday: Thanksgiving. Many Americans regard it as the most appealing of holidays. After all, it’s not associated with any particular religion, so everyone’s invited. And of course for most of us it’s centered on food, drink and family (not to mention NFL games and shopping), so what’s not to love? (I know it also raises some troubling associations. Check out this article in History.com for a brief history of Thanksgiving, including why some refer to it as a “National Day of Mourning.”)

Being only a moderately ignorant American, I knew our beloved Canadian neighbors also celebrate Thanksgiving, though their holiday is earlier in the year and they only get a single weekday off. Perhaps surprisingly, there aren’t many other countries that celebrate Thanksgiving or its equivalent. The best article I discovered on the subject is from The Week, which in 2012 published “Six Thanksgiving Celebrations around the World.” One country that celebrates Thanksgiving is Liberia. As The Week article notes, that country’s holiday “takes its inspiration directly from the American version, which isn't surprising given that Liberia was founded in the 19th century by freed slaves from the US. They brought with them many of the customs they learned in the New World, including Thanksgiving, though they eat mashed cassavas instead of mashed potatoes, and jazz up their poultry with a little spice.”

Marriot Acquisition Highlights the Importance of a Large Global Footprint

If it seems like you’re reading more about mergers and acquisitions this year than ever before, you’re right. This summer, CNN Money reported that we are in the midst of a global M&A “craze,” and that “the value of M&A deals involving US companies so far this year has already surpassed $1 trillion. It's the first time in history that has happened before the end of June.”

One of 2015’s more notable M&A deals was announced last Monday in a press release from Marriott International. The Bethesda, Maryland-based multinational revealed that it had acquired fellow hotel company Starwood. Assuming the deal goes through, the resulting company will be the largest hotel chain in the world, with over 5,500 hotels in more than 100 countries. Front and center in Marriott’s press release is the following justification for the acquisition: Starwood’s impressive “international footprint.”

The Wall Street Journal expands on this theme, indicating that emerging technologies are a significant factor in multinational hotel chains’ rush to expand into new markets: “Marriott’s deal to buy Starwood is the clearest sign yet that hospitality companies view mass scale as critical to their success at a time when the Internet is erasing old barriers to global expansion in the lodging business.” That article also notes that new companies in the sharing economy, like Airbnb, “are compelling traditional hoteliers to increase their global footprint or risk losing market share to these nimble competitors.” In other words, the acquisition is more evidence that businesses such as Starwood that are looking to attract buyers can make themselves appealing by having presences around the world.

For more information on the acquisition, check out this NBC News article. That piece likewise observes that “Starwood’s strong international presence will aid Marriott,” but I suppose by now you get the point. One more unrelated bit of interesting information from that NBC News article: Hoteliers like Marriot and Starwood don’t actually own a lot of their properties, but “instead they manage or franchise their brands to hundreds of individual owners, often real estate development companies;” and “it isn't uncommon for a developer to own a Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and Sheraton in the same city.”

Honoring a New Zealand Rugby Great

If you’re an athlete, your family will know you’ve transcended your sport when your death is noted above the fold in The Financial Times and your obituary — including a large picture — runs in The New York Times. New Zealand rugby great Jonah Lomu was just such an athlete, someone who, The Financial Times noted last Thursday, “became rugby union’s first global superstar after a string of dominant performances during the 1995 World Cup.” Even as a rugby ignoramus, I found the Financial Times obituary affecting (not to mention well-written), particularly its description of Lomu’s kidney disease and tragically thwarted “hope that he would see his children, aged five and six, reach their 21st birthdays.” Lomu was only 40 when he died last week.

Also worth reading is this reminiscence in BBC.com by former England rugby international Jeremy Guscott, who played both with and against Lomu. It includes this tribute: “[Lomu] was a giant of a man, someone who could play the game both brutally and beautifully, but off the pitch he was such a naturally nice guy, he had time for anybody and everybody and was such a gentleman.”

For Yanks like myself that need brushing up on pro rugby, check out this 1998 New York Times article, which singles out Lomu as “rugby's first NFL-style combination of size, strength and speed.” It describes a basically doomed 1997 project that sent 12 American football players — those recently cut from NFL teams — to Australia to try out for rugby teams. And in case you think the article might privilege American football players over their Australian and Kiwi rugby counterparts, here’s a quote from an NFL agent when asked to guess what would happen if a team of “NFL castoffs” was assembled to play rugby down under: “I'll tell you what would happen to the Americans. … They would get beat to death.”