Being Change Adaptive What North American and Latin American Business Could Learn From One Another

Celebrating Business What We Can Learn From Latin America

I have always been drawn to Latin American culture, a culture that puts people first celebrates family, and lives in the moment. A saying comes to mind that I learned back when I was younger that applies greatly to this mindset “work to live, don’t live to work”.

Latin American business people put people first, they see their business like people. They treat people as family and focus on making the best of every situation and seek out the best in others. While here in America we are taught to live to work, eat sleep and breathe business. This works in our favor of course but it costs us our life.

Latin America has adopted the ideals of southern European culture, that seeks to savor the moment, perform their best, and remember people are people and to treat them as such. In Brazil, it is ill form to speak negatively about another business in public, while in America it can be seen as a power move. In Argentina, it is expected that everyone to dress their best for meetings, men in a three-piece suit and women in a skirt and heels, however back here in the U.S. luxury athleisure and casual Fridays have turned into the normal business attire. Latin America still holds business a formal discourse, while in America we have taken a more casual and liberal stance, however, there is still much both cultures could learn from one another. Not all business operations are ideal in Latin America, in Argentina, it is extremely rare to see women in a senior position. This is because she is still expected to be at home with her children. In America, women have taken a seat in almost every high ranking office, from CEO of digital powerhouses like Yahoo to Seats in the nations highest courts of law.

The northern and southern European influence is still evident today in American and Latin America. There are ideals that we can adopt from one another. In America, we can adopt the familial respect for one another, and Brazil and Argentina could adopt a more modern perspective on women in senior positions.

There is still room for growth and ideas we should adopt from both cultures and we are beginning to do so. In America we need to learn not to take ourselves so seriously and remember what matters at the end of the day is family and each other. While in Latin America hopefully one day women will be taken more seriously and have a seat in the high offices.

References:

Lustig, N. (2017, July 19). 4 Lessons U.S. Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Latin American Startup Culture. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/297227

Warburton, K. (n.d.). Women in Business in Argentina. Retrieved from https://www.worldbusinessculture.com/country-profiles/argentina/culture/women-in-business/

Home. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.todaytranslations.com/doing-business-in-brazil

Dawson, F. (2014, July 31). Growing Entrepreneurship in Latin America. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/freddiedawson/2014/07/31/growing-entrepreneurship-in-latin-america/#308a17091af9