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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
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