Defending a global brand

Hyundai flap has lessons for other MNCs

It is not often that a social media post by a provincial car distributor leads to a conversation between two foreign ministers —but that is just what has happened following a message on social media from a Pakistani vendor of Hyundai cars that expressed support for Kashmiri separatists. Following a firestorm on Indian social media, the South Korean foreign minister spoke to his Indian counterpart to express his regrets. Whether social media posts of this sort should eventually be raised to the level of external affairs ministries is one question. But the other question is how transnational companies, like Hyundai,