Cultural difference in the business world.

This past week we have had several lesson,read several chapter, and watched several videos on difference amongst us. There are several lessons I learned early in life while I was a young Marine, and the biggest one was, this is a pretty large world and many, many cultures around the globe. I made my fair share of cultural mistakes and offended some people in different countries even though it wasn’t my intention to do so.Little did I know 30 years later I would be involved in a class talking about culture around the world but I do believe it prepared me for whats coming in my business planning.

One of our lessons talks about cultural mistakes. These mistakes are often overlooked in not only by the common public, but by the business world as well. As Americans, we consider business just that business. We enter into meetings with contracts on the table from the beginning and we deal in terms of work and progress with contracts than relationships. Japanese on the other hand rely much more on building a personal relationship with their partners before they begin working on contracts and business dealings. (Chron, nd)

Another lesson could be as simple as exchanging business cards hoping for future business and expansions. Again we see this in the Japanese culture. They believe that placing ones business card in the back pocket is a sign of being uninterested or disrespect to the owner of the card.(Global Business: Leadership and Gestures,2009) The appropriate action would be to take the card and place in your briefcase or at the very least a front pocket. How many of us throw stuff in our back pockets all the time without thinking?

Today, there is so many differences between countries and companies, its hard to know them all, but with the right attitude and a little research we can better ourselves to become prepared or these meetings and cultural divides. With the increased expansions and development of the international businesses, there is a real need to learn the fine art of global communications, this being the ability to converse and interact with other countries and other peoples without offending.

 

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-company-failure-due-cultural-mistakes-70712.html

http://www.globalbusinessleadership.com/gestures_asia.asp