Cultural Complexity_ the Etiquette of Doing Business Abroad - Documentos Google

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Cultural complexity: the etiquette of doing

business abroad

Overseas clients could be as unprepared for your way of doing business as you

are for theirs. Make sure you do your homework

1. It’s mid‐afternoon in downtown Ulaanbaatar,

Mongolia

. Five or six guests are sat around a restaurant

table waiting to share fermented mare’s milk with you

to celebrate the closing of an important business deal.

It’s a scenario ripe with possibilities for cultural



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cock‐ups and etiquette faux pas, which entrepreneur Will Tindall recalls

only too well.

2. Refusing to down your fair share of the toe‐curling concoction, famed for

being the tipple of choice of Genghis Khan and his troops, will not only be

socially embarrassing, it could cost you the deal you’ve been working for

months to broker.

3. “If you were to not drink it or have any sort of reaction to that initial taste,

it would definitely lower your standing within a meeting,” says Tindall,

co‐founder of Emerging Crowd. “And you’re very much expected to have a

shot each time someone has spoken.”

4. Of course, it’s very hard to keep your head after 15 shots of fiery alcohol,

and Tindall says even after living and doing business in the country for more

than a year he left the meeting without a clue what had been said or what

had actually happened. Any SME owner serious about exporting overseas,

however, should be prepared for a culture clash or two, particularly in

emerging markets unfamiliar with western customs.

5. Tindall says he has a weighty portfolio of embarrassing blunders made

during his last six years living and working in Asia. But despite becoming



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fairly accustomed to the rituals of business meetings in Hong Kong and

Singapore, he says nothing could prepare him for Tokyo.

6. Tindall remembers his first meeting in the Japanese capital 10 years ago,

with a very senior and well known individual in an international bank. He

was told to give a little bow upon taking the man’s business card and it

seemed all was going well. That was until he began to make notes about

who the person was on the card.

7. “At that point I saw this guy’s face change to a very strange shade of red.

My actions went down incredibly badly. Although I was giving this business

card lots of respect, the idea of writing on it was definitely frowned upon.

When I went to leave and try to shake his hand, he turned his back on me.

It was embarrassing but then I quickly realised that was also because they

don’t really shake hands.”

8. It may have been awkward, but it taught him a valuable lesson about

Japan’s reverence for the mighty business card. They are incredibly

important in Japan, Tindall says. If you are doing business there and have a

card which is also translated on the other side, you will receive immediate

kudos from the recipient. They love the extra effort that you go to, he adds,

but warns to make sure you know which way up the Japanese language side

is facing. Handing someone an upside down card is also considered rude.



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9. Thankfully, most hosts will be sympathetic to your cultural ignorance,

providing you make the effort. Having the ability to laugh at yourself if you

make a mistake and apologising is key to recovering from a particularly

awkward blunder, he says.

10.For Louis Barnett, the founder of Louis Barnett Chocolates, the biggest

hurdle was understanding that in some countries doing business is as much

a personal event as it is professional.

11.The 22‐year‐old entrepreneur, who started his British chocolate company

at the tender age of 12, was initially flummoxed by the reaction to his

typically hard‐nosed business talk. After expressing his professional concern

about a matter and sticking to the cold hard facts in a meeting with his

partners in Mexico, he was surprised that the reaction was one of offence.

By neglecting to ask the client about his personal life – his wife and kids –

he had inadvertently antagonised his hosts.

12.Because overseas clients will be as unprepared for your way of doing

business as you are for theirs, it is crucial you do your homework first and

get one step ahead before meeting in person. Barnett found help and

support from the British Chambers of Commerce, who have experts on the

ground with an understanding of the culture of that nation and the ways UK



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exporters may have to adapt to doing business there. The chambers, he

explains, has a wide reaching spider web of networks and contacts, from

buyers and distributors to lawyers, who will help you understand the

country’s market.

13.Bulldog Skincare is already a reputable brand of male grooming products in

the UK, but it is fast becoming equally well known abroad, with around

14,000 retailers stocking the product range across 13 countries. Its founder,

Simon Duffy, first dipped his toe in the overseas market in 2010 with a

lucrative deal in Sweden. After the company’s success in Scandinavia,

Bulldog had the confidence to throw its net wider, branching out to as far

as the US and Australia.

14.One of their most interesting exporting experiences was breaking into the

South Korean market. He hesitates to call it a challenge though, despite the

vast cultural differences. He claims with thorough research and

preparation, any exporting venture is totally manageable – you just have to

be sensitive to the differences.

15.Duffy recommends ediplomat.com, which features a helpful section about

cultural conventions, such as how to meet and greet people, as well as

information about names, titles, and even acceptable body language such

crossing your legs, eye contact and showing the soles of your feet.



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16.“Certain conventions which are encouraged in the west can come across as

confrontational in Korea,” Duffy explains. “One of the things we tried to

avoid was phrasing questions that required a yes or no answer, as Koreans

try to avoid the latter. The negotiation process has a completely different

rhythm. Things take longer to be resolved but that isn’t a sign of a lack of

momentum – you have to be prepared for several visits to build trust.”

17.Once that rapport is built, however, then collaboration will become easier.

Duffy adds that because they are making the best efforts to do the right

thing, their partners are also cutting them a lot of slack.

18.“They are meeting us in the middle now which is important and we value

that,” he says. “We are very conscious that we don’t want to offend the

local sensibilities but we are aware that they are reaching out to us and

finding common ground.”

http://www.theguardian.com/small‐business‐network/2014/oct/27/cultural‐etiq

uette‐doing‐business‐abroad

Cultural Complexity_ the Etiquette of Doing Business Abroad - Documentos Google

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