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You
Need To Know The Rules
Are you a sales manager setting up new distribution
channels? A service representative working with overseas
colleagues to set up new systems? A manager helping to
run an overseas subsidiary or open a new manufacturing
plant? Whoever you are, whatever you are doing, if you
are interacting with people from other cultures, you
need to know something about them.
A
Cross-Culture Awareness course can be an essential first
step in that process. When you do business with
companies in other countries, you are not just staying
in a different hotel, eating a different meal, and
meeting in different offices. You are entering someone
else's world, and you need to understand the history of
its people, the rules the culture runs by, and the way
they view the business process.
Inter-cultural
awareness does not come overnight. It will only come
with preparation, effort, and an open mind.
Every business
traveler should know something about the country they
are visiting - its history, its people, its heritage. It
helps you make conversation, helps you learn more from
the experience, and is a sign of respect for those you
are meeting.
Once
you understand the basic facts about a culture, and
something about its social rules, you are ready to do
business. When does yes
mean yes?
When does maybe
mean no? When should you raise the issue of payment? How are commitments
followed through? - In order to get the best results,
you need to know how business is done in your partner's
culture.
Social
issues form the backbone of any culture. People in
different countries conduct their lives in different
ways: Which color flowers to bring? Which hand to shake?
How to address your colleagues? Who speaks first?
It is far better to know the rules than to risk
offending anyone and losing a deal.
Knowing the rules
is one thing. Being prepared for the little things that
can go wrong, is quite another. And little things can
always go wrong!
Companies worldwide are actively training their staff
in Inter-Cultural awareness, sensitization and
communications in order to help
their sales, service and management employees prepare
for interacting and doing business, successfully, with
other cultures.
They
include manufacturers, service companies and consultants
from electronics, telecommunications, pharmaceutical,
construction, government, training and education,
tourism, automotive, consumer electronics, marine
engineering, and many other organizations.
How do we prepare
for a different culture? An environment that, for all
its outwardly similarities, is completely different from
the one we are accustomed to?
For
instance:
· How do you manage a team of culturally
diverse employees ?
· You must negotiate contracts, but does
your counterpart share your cultural preconceptions just
because he is dressed like you ?
· You must hire and train new staff, but
how is time and education viewed in another culture ?
· You must host a foreign delegation, but
what are their goals and cultural needs?
· How do you respond to an ambiguous
command from your manager if he/she is from a different
culture ?
These are just a few of the innumerable questions
that arise as soon as you move outside of a national
framework.
(BACK)
SCI -
Marina Del Rey CA, 90292-USA
USA:
Tel: (877) 680-0800 ext. 605 Fax:
(208) 979-9338
UK:
Tel:+44-0870-139-9366
Fax:+44-0870-139-9366
Email: crossculture@usa.net
or:
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HERE TO REQUEST INFORMATION
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