What is your trust strategy? Does cultural background affect how a coworker decides to trust you? We set out to discover and measure cross-cultural trust factors, conducting research with over 1200 people from 65 cultures over the past year and a half. Two critical elements in people’s trust strategy we found are their approach to […]
Cricket World Cup 2015 – Opportunity to build rapport before Finals, March 29th, 2015 Forward short leg. Silly mid off. Leg slip. Extra cover. Cow corner. These are only some of the many field positions in the game called Cricket. If you are not familiar with these terms, you might not know that the International Cricket Council […]
Japan is on the rise again – or is it? Since the beginning of 2013, Japan has seen a nearly 50% gain in its stock market, the yen is down, and consumer spending is up. In the world economy “gaiatsu”, or pressure from the outside, can be seen as both a threat and a motivation […]
Each year Chinese from all over the world plan to reunite the family to celebrate Chinese New Year. In the world’s largest annual migration, at least 200 million Chinese travel home. On New Year’s eve, families watch CCTV (Chinese television) for the biggest party for the new year. Fish and dumplings are traditional foods, and […]
Feb. 10th begins the lunar new year in Asia: Spring Festival in China, Tet in Vietnam, Seollal in Korea. As the biggest holiday of the year, it is a time for families to reunite, and many of our colleagues in Asia will take several days to two weeks holiday. JFK, Chairman Mao, Tony Blair, Pablo […]
Russia’s rigorous standards and leadership in math and science produce top talent engineers, software developers, scientists, R&D researchers and business analysts – so how many Russians are you working with these days? With Russia’s accession in August 2012 to the WTO (the 156th member), global companies will have opportunities as Russian leadership liberalizes trade, encourages […]
“How do we handle time zone differences?” Many a bleary eyed late-night or early-morning manager has sought a better way to collaborate with coworkers, customers and suppliers around the world. While tools such as TimeandDate.com can help identify overlapping times for meetings, the real question is how to share the “pain”, be most effective, and […]
These days, Germany leads Europe as an economic powerhouse. Why? High productivity, strong work commitment, solid education standards, and low absenteeism are but some of the reasons foreign companies seek teamwork with German employees and partners. Almost twenty-five years after the Wall came down, younger Germans in all parts of the country are more adaptable, […]
My German colleague, Katrin, once said during a cultural orientation program, “Americans never have problems; they only have challenges.” It was such an interesting comment (accurate or not) that started a provocative discussion about how culture creates a lens through which one makes sense of the world around them. In essence, culture creates a mindset. […]
“Samsung was in another crunch and as usual expecting us to do miracles to make their requests happen — no matter what!” David, a U.S. manager, who had been working with Samsung for a several months, continued, “We cannot jump bridges for this customer. We should do all that we can do, but when […]
