Intercultural Management Training - Cultural Relations Consultant

If you wish to do business in Asia you cannot concentrate only on negotiating. Conversations in the informal atmosphere that seem less important also contribute to doing successful business. Smalltalk opens the way to background information.
Most managers are not weil enough prepared for doing business abroad. The right preparation can be the deciding factor. Instead of concentrating on the business partner, finding out his needs and taking those needs into consideration, they only have one thing on their minds: selling their products as fast as possible. Intercultural knowledge can hardly be noticed.
Success can only be achieved by familiarizing in advance with the current business culture and showing patience and improvisation talent during the later negotiations. The business partner wants to be respected - before, during and after negotiations.
The (German/Dutch) manager is annoyed. He has sent his (American/Asian) colleague, for the third time, a fax message requesting certain information. However, the (American/Asian) simply does not answer. In a workshop the situation has finally been c1arified. The (American/ Asian) explained that he simply did not have the information, but did not want to lose face by admitting it. So he kept silent.
Wherever managers of different nationalities work together intercultural misunderstandings can occur and quite often details which seem less important result in major consequences. Meanwhile the topic intercultural management is being taken seriously, but many things still work out by coincidence. Especially within smaller, middle and large companies nothing much happens.
Nowadays we can claim that expatriates, staff working abroad, are by no means the only ones who have to be interculturally up-to-date.
The one or two-day awareness seminars through which information about the relevant countries is being given are important but do not suffice.
Promises of preparing participants for doing business in Asia in one day are simply unfair.
An extensive range of seminars should be offered. In the Intercultural Communication Training a trainer from the target country trains the participants on how to communicate in that particular country.
Participants of the Interactive Workshops are associates from (Germany/the Netherlands) and the target country. Through playing roles various behaviour patterns are mutually analysed and discussed.
The demand for intercultural seminars increases, because no management team will send its personnel to Asia without intercultural training background.
Nowadays many companies can imagine how important training is, because quality criteria are no longer absent.
A deciding factor is that the basic cultural structures, such as dealing with a country authority, are being recognized and understood.
Another quality criterium is behaviour orientation. Everybody understands that in some countries smalltalk is of importance at the beginning of a meeting.
With this in mind patience should be introduced into the role play before getting down to 'business'.
Quite often it is neccessary to discuss opinions. It is particularly dramatic when a (German/Dutch) manager spoils a deal not by ignorance but by conviction.
For instance when he insists on applying a democratic pol icy in a country with a hierarchie character just because he is in favour of it.
Whereas in the past theoretic knowledge staod out, nowadays the personal experience is During the behaviour oriented training of several days the topic interculteral knowledge is being integrated more and more.
For instance two days are being used, during an international management meeting, to determine and discuss various points of view or to solve intercultural differences.
All this is aimed at serving the 'intercultural team development' and eliminating intercultural differences and problems within the project team.
Another aim is to build up multipliers throughout the whole company and to strengthen the consciousness of cultural differences.
Furthermore country specific proiect training is being offered to all associates who have to deal with the country in question.
A person who works together with several nationalities will be presented with an unspecified culture model during an intercultural management training by which he or she can recognize and understand the striking characteristics of different cultures, e.g. how to deal with power.
Personnel department staff are identified as a strategically i mportant target group.
The persons responsible should know how to conduct an interview with an American or Asian job applicant.
The instruments of personnel affairs should therefore also be looked into concerning intercultural aspects and modified consequently.
However, in this area especially, a lot of convincing has still to be done, because international projects and sending personnel abroad (Asia) are increasing rapidly.