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SIX RULES OF THUMB FOR DOING BUSINESS
ACROSS CULTURES:
Each culture has its logic, and within that logic are real, sensible reasons for the
way foreigners do things. If the sales person can figure out the basic pattern of the
culture, he or she will be more effective interacting with foreign clients and
colleagues. The following six rules of thumb are helpful.
1. Be Prepared:
Whether traveling abroad or selling from home, no one should approach foreign
market without doing his or her homework. A mentor is most desirable,
complemented by endless reading on social and business etiquette, history and
folklore, current affairs (including current relations between your two countries),
the culture's values, geography, sources of pride (artists, musicians, sports),
religion and the political scenario.
2. Slow Down:
Americans are clock-watchers. Time is money. In many countries, we are seen to

be in a rush, in other words, unfriendly, arrogant, and untrustworthy. Almost
everywhere, we must learn to wait patiently. For instance, take a step back and
observe the scene. If you have the luxury of time then you're lucky as you can learn
many skills from observing, however if you are on a tight time-line, then it's best to
probably work with a local partner to help you understand that steps aren't as linear
in Vietnam as in Western society.
3. Establish Trust:
Often American-style crisp business relationships will get the sales representative
nowhere. Product quality, pricing, and clear contracts are not as important as the
personal relationship and trust that are developed carefully and sincerely over time.
The marketer must be established as simpatico, worthy of the business and
dependable in the long run. As in any relationships trust is extremely important,
however what you might not know and be naive to is that trust is the most
important business factor, even more important than the contract. While contracts
have legal binding, trust is the end all for successful 1on 1 relationships as well as
business relationships.
4. Understand importance of language:
Obviously, copy must be translated by a professional who speaks both languages

fluently, with a vocabulary sensitive to nuance and connotation, as well as talent
with idiom and imagery in each culture. An interpreter is often critical and may be
helpful even when one of the parties speaks the other’s language. You'd think as
long as there's a language to communicate by then you’re fine. Wrong! As in any
country, locals appreciate foreigners learning their language.
5. Respect the culture:
Manners are important. The traveling sales representative is a guest in the country
and must respect the hosts ‘rules. As a Saudi Arabian official stated in one of the
Going International film, ―Americans in foreign countries have a tendency to
treat the natives as foreigners and they forget that actually it is they who are
foreigners themselves!‖ Any culture has its way of doing things so it’s very
important to respect the values and traditions of the local culture. Most people
work for their families which makes their job important as a means to serve their
families, but not their most important priority. For this reason you should first
understand that people want to work in a family type manner where they look up to
their elders and learn from them.
6. Understand Components of Culture:
A region is a sort of cultural iceberg with two components: surface culture (fads,
styles, food, etc.) and deep culture (attitudes, beliefs, values). Less than 15 percent
of a region‘s culture is visible, and strangers to the culture must look below the
surface. Consider the British habit of automatically lining up on the sidewalk when
waiting for a bus. This surface cultural trait results from the deep cultural desire to
lead neat and controlled lives. Knowledge about other cultures and how they affect
the way people do business may show businesspeople working in a culture
different from their own that their solutions are not always the appropriate ones for
a given task. Understanding this is the
First step in learning to use cultural differences to gain a strategic advantage.

Mishandling or ignoring cultural differences can cause numerous problems, such
as lost sales, competent employees leaving the firm, and low morale that
contributes to low productivity. However, when these differences are blended
successfully, they can result in innovative business practices superior to those that
either culture could produce by itself. The words and gestures you use are also very
important. Learn how to address elders in terms of pronouns to use and use two
hands giving and receiving as a sign of respect. Deep culture is harder to
understand and takes time.
To help managers negotiate this complexity, I have built on the work of many in
my field to develop a tool called the Culture Map. It is made up of eight scales
representing the management behaviors where cultural gaps are most common
(communicating, evaluating, persuading, leading, deciding, trusting, disagreeing
and scheduling). By comparing the relative position of one nationality to another
on each scale, the user can decide how culture influences day-to-day collaboration.
THE CULTURE MAP
The eight scales on the map are based on decades of academic research into culture
from multiple perspectives. To this foundation, I have added my own work, which
has been validated by extensive interviews with thousands of executives, who have
confirmed or corrected my findings. The scales and their
1. Communicating
When we say that someone is a good communicator, what do we actually mean?

The responses differ wildly from society to society. I compare cultures along the
communicating scale by measuring the degree to which they are high-or low-
context, a metric developed by the American anthropologist Edward Hall. In low-
context cultures, good communication is precise, simple, explicit and clear.
Messages are understood at face value. Repetition is appreciated for purposes of
clarification, as is putting messages in writing. In high-context cultures,
communication is sophisticated, nuanced and layered. Messages are often implied
but not plainly stated. Less is put in writing, more is left open to interpretation, and
understanding may depend on reading between the lines.
2. Evaluating
All cultures believe criticism should be given constructively, but the definition of
̳constructive‘ varies greatly. This scale measures a preference for frank versus
diplomatic negative feedback. Evaluating is often confused with communicating,
but many countries have different positions on the two scales. The French, for
example, are high-context (implicit) communicators relative to the British, yet they
are more direct in their criticism.
3. Persuading
The ways in which you persuade others and the kinds of arguments you find
convincing are deeply rooted in your culture‘s philosophical, religious, and
educational assumptions and attitudes. The traditional way to compare countries
along this scale is to assess how they balance holistic and specific thought patterns.
Typically, a Western executive will break an argument down into a sequence of
distinct components (specific thinking), while Asian managers tend to show how
each component fits with all the others (holistic thinking). Beyond that, people
from southern European and Germanic cultures tend to find deductive arguments
(principles-first arguments) most persuasive, whereas American and British
managers are more likely to be influenced by inductive logic (applications-first
logic).
4. Leading
This dimension measures the degree of respect and deference shown to authority
figures, placing countries on a spectrum from egalitarian to hierarchical. In
Nigeria, a child learns to defer to the words of an older brother, teacher, or a parent
and an employee applies the same lesson to a boss. In Denmark, a child learns that
the teacher or elder is a facilitator and the boss’s opinion is one opinion among
equals. Learning to lead across these cultural differences is one of the greatest
challenges of working in a global economy.
5. Deciding
This dimension measures the degree to which a culture is consensus-minded. We

often assume that the most egalitarian cultures will also be the most democratic,
while the most hierarchical ones will allow the boss to make unilateral decisions.
This isn‘t always the case. Germans are more hierarchical than Americans, but are
also more likely than their US colleagues to build group agreement before making
decisions. The Japanese are both strongly hierarchical and strongly consensual.
6. Trusting
Cognitive trust (from the head) can be contrasted with affective trust (from the
heart). In task-based cultures, trust is built cognitively through work. If we
collaborate well, prove ourselves reliable, and respect each other’s contributions,
we come to trust each other. In a relationship-based society, trusties a result of
weaving a strong affective connection. If we spend time laughing

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SIX RULES OF THUMB FOR DOING BUSINESS

Americans are clock-watchers. Time is money. In many countries, we are seen to

4. Understand importance of language:

Obviously, copy must be translated by a professional who speaks both languages

5. Respect the culture:

6. Understand Components of Culture:

First step in learning to use cultural differences to gain a strategic advantage.

THE CULTURE MAP

When we say that someone is a good communicator, what do we actually mean?

This dimension measures the degree to which a culture is consensus-minded. We

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