World's Business Cultures

Mike Tomalin Barry/Nicks

Description

The latest edition of World Business Cultures - A Handbook shows readers how to create connections and win deals in global business, rather than committing clumsy and costly faux pas. It shows the reader how to assess and understand the business customs and thinking of other countries and customs, and how to mould your approach to achieve rapport and trust.With this book, you'll never get the tone of a presentation, negotiation or social meeting wrong again. It gives guidance on how to handle yourself in person-to-person situations, and in the digital world.Warning: Not understanding different cultures could lose you business and money!

Sujets

• Service innovation
• International business

Informations

• Publié par: Thorogood Publishing
• Date de parution: 21 septembre 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781854188120
• Langue: English

Extrait

First published in eBook format 2014 Thorogood Publishing Ltd 10-12 Rivington Street London EC2A 3DU Telephone: [phone] Email: [e-mail] Web: www.thorogoodpublishing.co.uk
© Barry Tomalin & Mike Nicks 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed upon the subsequent purchaser.
No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of any material in this publication can be accepted by the author or publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN:
Paperback (10) 1854188119 (13) 9781854188113
Ebook (10) 1854188127 (13) 9781854188120
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge their enormous debt to Richard D Lewis, Chairman of Richard Lewis Communications, for his enormous research, thought leadership and support over thirty years of work. His Lewis model remains one of the most practical and influential ways of understanding how business cultures operate.
Acknowledgements are also due to HarperCollins for the sections on business language, presentations, meetings and negotiations developed in ‘ Key Business Skills ’ by Barry Tomalin, HarperCollins, 2012.
Thanks too to our colleagues at the London Academy of Diplomacy for their support, especially Professor Joseph Mifsud, its director.
Special thanks are due to close colleagues and experts in the field, including Michael Carrier, John Farrer, Jack Lonergan, Susan Stempleski, Ulla Ladau Harjulin, Rob Williams and Debby Swallow.
But most important of all are our families, Mary and Paul Tomalin, Carole Nicks and Tracy, Gary and Jessica.
The authors
Barry Tomalin, MA is an international business consultant, specialising in international communication and cultural awareness. He lectures at the London Academy of Diplomacy and is Director of the Business Cultural Trainers Certificate at International House, London. Barry’s career has been mainly in international education. Trained initially in African Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, he has worked as a language teacher, Overseas Development Authority adviser to the Government of Benin, Editor and Marketing Director of the English Language division of the BBC World Service and is the author of a number of books on language and culture. Barry speaks French and some Spanish. Barry’s website is www.culture-training.com .
Mike Nicks is a journalist and author, media coach and language enthusiast. He has worked on the launch or development of around 40 magazines and newspapers in the UK, France, the USA and Australia and has written for national newspapers in London including the Guardian , the Independent , the Sunday Times , the Daily Telegraph and the Observer on topics as varied as motorsport, business cultures and language learning. He has worked as a special projects editor in Paris, and as an editorial director with Emap USA in Los Angeles and with Bauer Specialist Media in the UK. He is the co-author of John Surtees: My Incredible Life on Two and Four Wheels , a photo-autobiography of the motorsports legend. Mike speaks Spanish and French.
Introduction
Since 2010 and our second edition the world has changed. As the Chinese proverb says, 'We are living in interesting times.'
The international banking system is in the process of reorganisation and consolidation. Traditional markets are weakening and new markets are becoming more powerful. Trends that forecasters predicted for 2020 and 2050 are occurring much sooner. In 2013 China overtook the US as the world’s largest economy by manufacturing output. We are years ahead of trend.
Why do cultural differences matter in business? Many say they don’t. However the majority who realize that culture in business is critical have often learned the hard way. Differences in culture manifest in differences in ways of working. Failure to spot these and to plan for them means slippage in deadlines, failures in quality assurance, management poor relations and non-co-operation, poor performance, financial penalties for delays or non-completion penalties, and even withdrawal of contract or the agreement leading to protracted lawsuits.
Culture isn’t soft. It’s essential. It is one of your key defences against international business and financial disaster.
The impact on the world's exporters is clear. We need to think beyond our traditional markets to the new emerging markets. This radical change affects manufacturing, financial services, and commerce – in fact, every aspect of international trade.
But there is another area that is just as important: the internal internationalisation of companies. Middle managers in international companies are now in regular communication with managers in other countries, and often their direct reports both senior and junior are based overseas. Yet the two sides may never actually meet: they communicate by telephone conference call and occasionally by videoconference. They know little about their colleagues’ or managers’ cultures or working conditions, and often they can’t travel because travel is either too expensive or the company is very security conscious. Yet in many cases these overseas senior managers, who their subordinates never meet and only contact remotely, are responsible for their progress in the company and are responsible for their appraisals and even bonuses.
There is a third characteristic of our contemporary world: migrant workers. These are not just the seasonal fruit pickers who may come and go, but workers who arrive from other countries, integrate into a company and rise to higher management positions. There are now large communities of workers from abroad living in our cities and working in our companies.
How do we respond to them? Migrant workers have always been a part of local manufacturing and business, but the number of migrant workers is increasing exponentially. To take just one example, some 400,000 French citizens live and work in the UK, most of them in London. This fact prompted a former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to dub London France’s fourth largest city (statistically, it is now France’s sixth largest city).
These three factors – export imperatives, the internationalisation of companies and the increased migration of labour – are complicated by a fourth, a trend that we can call globality.
For the last ten to fifteen years, Western companies have increased margins and reduced costs by outsourcing and by absorbing companies in emerging countries into their own organisations. Now we are beginning to see the reversal of that process. Indian companies, in particular, are setting up branches in Europe and the US and competing with their former employers.
The most powerful aspect of this phenomenon is the way that Indian companies are beginning to absorb Western organisations. India’s most iconic company, Tata, is now the proud owner of many Western brands (such as Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles in the UK) and steel and manufacturing enterprises. China is investing heavily in Africa and Latin America to access the raw materials it needs to boost its manufacturing, taking on part of the role traditionally played by the US in Latin America, and Britain and France in Africa.,
In short, globality means that everyone is competing for everything everywhere. In this new environment, we need to get to know each other much better. That means understanding the cultures – and particularly the business cultures – of our partners. That’s what this book helps you to do. The secret is to know what to look for, and we offer simple guidelines to help you unlock any business culture in the world.
In our experience culture can be complicated. When you look at a colleague’s or partner’s business culture there are many things that seem to come into play: values and attitudes, customs, folklore, climate, food and drink, entertainment, classical and popular culture, traditions, ways of communicating and ways of doing business, etiquette – and sport. What you need as an international business person is a clear focus – you need to know what to look for.
That is why in this book we show you what to look for and we demonstrate it in our profiles of 12 key business cultures. We’ve called the process, RADAR, a laser that allows you to tune in instantly to other business cultures. We have identified seven key tools :
RADAR EXPECTATIONS – what are the features of a business relationship that create trust across borders? RADAR COMMUNICATION – what are the six key ways that people communicate across borders and how can you adapt? RADAR ENGLISH – English is the language of business but not everyone uses it in the same way and to the same level. How can you adapt your English to make it clear for everyone you deal with, wherever they may be? RADAR MANAGEMENT – What are the key management style features that differentiate business cultures? What problems can these differences cause and how can you overcome them? RADAR PROFILE – What is your management profile? How can you compare it with colleagues or JV and M&A partners in other business cultures? RADAR SYSTEM – How can you spot and deal with problems before they arise? ECOLE – an acronym to help you identify the key differences in another business culture.
RADAR© shows where to look for differences and shows you how to deal with the differences when you identify them. It is the best and most effective