Local Hires Beat MBAs
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A story about how Facebook's growth strategy in Japan succeeded only after they replaced MBA consultants with local talent who understood cultural nuances.
"I remember reading about when Facebook was trying to grow in Japan. They hired some MBAs and flew them over to Japan. They came back, and a few months went by - we weren't growing. We're like 'what's going on?'
We fired those MBAs and got this young woman who was actually living in Japan. Within the first month, we were seeing growth. We're like 'wait, what? What are you doing that these MBA people haven't done?'
She said 'Well, on the Facebook profile, we don't care about your relationship status - we care about your blood type.' It's just stuff like that you would only know if you were local to the market. Things that MBA consultants wouldn't understand about what actually matters to Japanese users."
Ishan Haque
Ishan Haque is a South African-born Bengali Australian startup investor, advisor, and executive. Haque is most well-known for his involvement as an early public investor in today's multi-billion-dollar companies like Animoca Brands. He is currently an investor and full-time executive at Shuffle.com, one of the fastest-growing online gaming brands in the world. Prior to this, Ishan held senior growth roles at direct-to-consumer brands in San Francisco and Sydney. He was also the co-creator and producer of the chart-topping business podcasts "My First Million" and "First Text," which have over 100 million downloads and feature guests such as Ashton Kutcher, Mr. Beast, and Marissa Mayer. He is now the co-host of "Under Qualified", a business casual podcast that co-stars Edward Holland and Andre Barber.