After having agreed on all the financial, legal and technical issues, the regional manager of Trans-Oceanic, Mr Ted Goodfellow, went to Riyadh to wrap up the final details and to sign the contract with Arabco. During the meeting with the top Arabco executives Goodfellow said casually, "We, at Trans-Oceanic, are really looking forward to working with you here in the Persian Gulf!" At that there was a moment of shocked silence on the Arabco side of the conference table. Then the three senior executives arose and strode angrily out of the room, breaking off negotiations. Bewildered Goodfellow looked at the two junior Saudis who had remained behind. "What happened here?" he asked the young Arabs across the table. "Did I say something wrong?" After some hesitation one of the Arabco employees explained that in Saudi Arabia, the body of water in question is called Arabian Gulf. By misnaming it Goodfellow had unintentionally implied that the gulf belonged to Iran - a country which Saudi Arabia at that time considered hostile and threatening.
Such misunderstandings are rampant when companies do business globally. And to iron out such creases in the fabric of relationships it is essential for the executives to be alert to the cross-cultural differences that can wreck even the most promising business deals.
Culture differs across the globe along with the shift of latitudes and longitudes, along with the variations of the hair colour and changes of the bone structures. Thus, in Singapore, if the lift operator asks you at 7.30 AM, "Have you had your lunch", politely answer "Yes, thank you. Have you had yours?" To site an example of such a cultural variation, if you go to Russia, do not feel uncomfortable if a fellow Russian enfolds you in a great bear hug and kisses you on your lips. While thumbs-up sign is slowly emerging as a universal sign for "great", to many Europeans and in the Middle East, it is an obscene sign. Talking loudly, using hand gestures and facial expressions, which comes quite normally to many, can easily make the Thai women feel that you are furious or insane. Thus, behavior that is proper and familiar in one culture may be rude, offensive and strange at the other. And these contrasting values may cause conflict at the conference table. To avoid such blunders, it is absolutely essential for the international business travelers to go through the travails of learning the cultural basics of the country with which they are expected to interact. Some of the aspects of the varied patterns and hues of cross-cultural behaviors have been described hereunder.
The "Great Divide" between cultures
The differences between the deal-focused (DF) people who are fundamentally task-oriented and relationship-focused (RF) folks, who are more people-oriented is considered to be the "Great Divide" between business cultures. Conflicts are common when DF export marketers make an effort to do business with the RF markets. While the RF people find the DF types aggressive, authoritative and offensively blunt, the latter find the former dilatory, vague and inscrutable.
Attributes of those for whom deal comes first:
* Common in only a small part of the world. Strongly DF cultures are found in Northern Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, where people are relatively open to doing business with strangers (See Box 1).
* Relatively open to dealing with strangers; export marketers can normally make direct contacts with potential buyers without any previous relationship or connection.
* Talk business right from the start and get to know each other as things proceed; build rapport right at the bargaining table.
* Business negotiations last for a shorter while.
* Much communication and problem solving is handled via telephone, fax and e-mail rather than in face-to-face meetings.
* Rely more on written agreements to prevent misunderstandings and solve problems. For instance, many US companies bring a lengthy draft contract and a lawyer to the negotiating table.

Attributes of those for whom relationship comes first:
* Prefer to deal with family, friends and groups who are beyond suspicion.
* Get things done through intricate networks of personal contacts and are uncomfortable about doing business with strangers. The vast majority of world's markets are relationship-oriented: the Arab world and most of Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific region (See Box 1).

Box 1 The Great Divide
Deal focused cultures	Moderately deal-focused cultures	Relationship-focused cultures
North America, Australia, Nordic and Germanic Europe, New Zealand	Great Britain, South Africa, Latin Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Chile, South Brazil, North Mexico, Hong Kong, Singapore	The Arab world, most of Africa, Latin America and Asia

* Proper way to approach someone who does not yet know you is to arrange for the right person or organization to introduce you. A third-party introduction bridges the relationship gap between you and the person/company you want to talk to (See Box 2). Often the best way to contact RF business partners is at an international trade show or to join an official trade mission.
* In the "getting to know you" game, at the initial stage, meeting hovers around discussing weather, sports, music etc and often ends up without a single mention of business. It takes time, patience and a cast-iron liver (as, in many a case, getting inebriated together seems to speed up the rapport-building process) to develop a strong relationship.
* Business negotiations last for a long while.
* People rely more on personal relationships rather than on lawyers and detailed contracts. It is better to keep lawyers only in the background until the last stages of discussion. A reliance on close relationships
* Effective communication and problem solving require frequent face-to-face contacts.

box 2 Opening an office in Dhaka without paying bribes When an American company decided to open a outsourcing and quality-control office in Bangladesh, they were told by the local consulting firms that the approval process would take up to a year and the quoted fees was $ 10,000 including "special expenses" - bribes to the responsible officials. Unwilling to engage in bribery, the firm shelved the idea of a Dhaka office. In the later years, the firm's regional director for South and South-East Asia met a charming, well-read gentleman who had headed two different ministries in a previous Bangladesh government and discussed the problem with him. The latter promised to arrange to get his office registered within a month. The fee asked for was $900, the cost of the airfare. Three weeks later their Dhaka office was a legal entity - the fastest liaison-office registration ever recorded in Bangladesh.

Communicating across the Great Divide
These two sections vary immensely in the way they communicate. DF negotiators are found to value direct, frank, straight-forward language while their RF counterparts favour a more indirect, subtle, roundabout style.

Attributes of direct language preference of deal-focused people
* Priority is to be clearly understood.
* Usually say what they mean and mean what they say. For example, German and Dutch negotiators are found to be blunt speakers. They smile only when they need to and do not hesitate to say a straight and polite "no".
* Have a transparent face that does not make much of an effort to conceal expressions.
* Their communication is regarded as "low context" i.e. more of the meaning is explicit - contained in words themselves.
* Directness and frankness in communication are equated with honesty and sincerity. Little attention is paid to issues of face.
* A sincere friend is considered to be one who tells you the truth even when the truth happens to be unpleasant.

Attributes of indirect language preference of relationship-focused people
* Priority is to maintain harmony and to promote smooth interpersonal relationship.
* Tend to use indirect language to avoid conflict and confrontation. They carefully watch what they do or say in order to avoid embarrassing or offending other people.
* Most Japanese, Chinese and South East negotiators treat "no" as an insulting word (See box No 3). When they mean "no" they say "That will be difficult" or "We will have to give that further study" or "That will be inconvenient". While Arabs lift their eyebrows to politely refuse the request, Thais often smile and change the subject or say nothing at all!
* Negotiators tend to be sensitive to issues of "face", dignity, self-respect. Showing impatience, irritation, frustration and anger are regarded to disrupt harmony and are considered to be rude and offensive. They mask their negative emotions by remaining expressionless or by putting a smile on their face. And when negotiator on one side of the bargaining table loses temper, both sides lose face.
* Their communication is "high context" i.e. the meaning of what they are saying at the bargaining table is often found more in the context surrounding the words rather than in the words themselves.
* Directness and frankness in communication are equated with immaturity and naivete - perhaps even arrogance. A sincere friend is considered to be one who declares his willingness to help out - even when he cannot or will not do the favour.

Formal Vs informal business cultures
Breezy informality offends high status people from hierarchical cultures just as the status-consciousness of formal people may offend the egalitarian sensibilities of informal folks.

Attributes of formal culture:
* Tend to be organized in steep hierarchies that reflect major differences in status, hierarchies, power and respect.
* Business contacts are formally addressed by their family name and title and not by given name. Your Italian contact should be addressed with the honorific "Commendatore" until you know him well enough to call him Gustavo. And your German contact Doctor Wilhelm Muller should be called Herr Dr. Muller and never ever Willi.
* Formality in interpersonal communication is an important way of showing respect and deference. Protocol rituals are often numerous and elaborate. Innocent informality can be easily misinterpreted as disrespect. For instance, bureaucrats in South and South-east Asia can be offended by overly casual behavior of the Westerners. Wearing a suit and tie to meetings during the hot season sends a positive signal of respect and keeping ones jacket on in a non-air-conditioned office signals even greater respect.

Box 3 96,000 shirts that can't be sold When the Great Northern Apparel of Toronto planned to import shirts from China, the VP had categorically explained to the Evergreen Garment of Guangzhow that any apparel sold in Canada ought to have labels with fibre content and laundering instructions in both French and English. This news was a cause of concern in the Chinese side because of their lack of expertise in French. Too polite to say a precise "no", the MD said "it might be difficult" and "the question will require further study". The VP of the Toronto firm reiterated that they were left with no other option with this since this was the law. He was then assured that "his request will be given a serious consideration". Relieved to have settled this final deal, the VP signed the contract of purchase and went back home. Several months later, a colleague called him up to tell him that a shipment of 96,000 shirts has arrived from China with bilingual labels in English and Chinese. The VP did not know what to do with 96,000 shirts that surely cannot be sold due to lack of the right labels.

* In certain hierarchically organized cultures women rarely get senior positions in commercial organization. Especially in South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia, men are traditionally accorded higher status in the business world than females. The top positions in most of the companies are held by men who are not used to dealing with women in business on the basis of equality. In Japan, for instance, almost all the "office ladies" perform clerical duties and they lack the status necessary to interact effectively with corporate decision-makers.
* Age barrier is a matter of grave seriousness.

Box 4 Formal Cultures Informal Cultures Most of Europe and Asia The Mediterranean region Arab world Latin America Australia USA Canada New Zealand Denmark, Norway, Iceland

Attributes of informal culture:
* People are uncomfortable with obvious status differences that are, surely, smaller than those in the hierarchical societies.
* One tends to address an acquaintance by his first name too soon. Your prospective Australian business partner, for instance, whom you happen to know only for a short while, greets you with a hearty "G'day Phil! Let's 'ave a beer!"
* Informal behavior is not regarded as disrespectful.
* Protocol rituals are relatively few and simple.
* Women in egalitarian cultures around the world are successful entrepreneurs or executives in major corporations.
* Youth is an advantage.

Rigid and fluid time cultures
People look at time and scheduling differently in different parts of the world. In rigid-time societies punctuality is critical, schedules are set in concrete, agendas are fixed and business meetings are rarely interrupted. Edward T hall coined the word "monochronic" for these clock-obsessed, schedule-worshipping cultures. And in direct contrast are "polychronic" cultures, where people place less emphasis on strict punctuality and are not obsessed with deadlines. Polychronic cultures value loose scheduling as well as business meetings where several meetings-within-meetings may be taking place simultaneously.

Box 5
Monochronic business cultures	Moderately monochronic	Polychronic business culture
Nordic and Germanic Europe, North America, Japan	Australia/New Zealand, Russia and most of East-Central Europe, Southern Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, South Korea, South Africa	The Arab World, most of Africa, Latin America, South and Southeast Asia

Attributes of monochronic business culture:
* Punctuality and schedules are very important to business people.
* Schedules and deadlines are very important. Tardiness signals lack of discipline. Germans, for instance, feel that if a man is ten minutes late for a meeting, he may well be ten weeks late with his delivery.
* Meetings are seldom interrupted.
* Tend to follow agenda. Conversations proceed in a linear fashion from Item 1 to the last item on the agenda with no major digressions.
* Meeting starts off only with a few minutes of introductory small talk.

Attributes of polychronic business culture
* People and relationships are more important than punctuality and precise scheduling
* Schedules and deadlines tend to be quite flexible. Many of them even tend to have an aversion towards rigid deadlines. For instance, if one’s Sicilian counterpart shows up at all on the day of the meeting, he is considered to be punctual. Wedding dinners are guaranteed to begin at least two hours late in Singapore. Many Arab men believe that it is impious and irreligious to try to see into the future; terms like Insh'allah or "God willing" expressions that belief.

Box 6
Very expressive cultures	Variably expressive	Reserved cultures
The Mediterranean region, Latin Europe, Latin America	USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Eastern Europe, South Asia, Africa	East and Southeast Asia, Nordic and Germanic Europe

* Meetings are frequently interrupted.
* They do not always abide by an agenda. And if they do, they may might as well start with item No. 5, proceed to Item 3 and wander off in several directions.
* The introductory chat can last for several minutes. In Italy or France, for example, the warm-up chat can really be lengthy.
Expressive Vs Reserved nonverbal business behavior
Expressive people communicate in radically different ways from their more reserved counterparts. This is true whether they are communicating verbally, paraverbally and nonverbally. The confusion that results from these differences can soil our best efforts to market, sell, source, negotiate or manage people across cultures. Thus the expressive/reserved divide creates a major communication gap.

Box 7 World's prime culture zones On the basis of the culture profile the whole of the global market can be sliced into eight prime culture zones. They are as follows: 1. Relationship-focused, formal, polychronic and reserved Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines. India 2. Relationship-focused, formal, monochronic and reserved Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore 3. Relationship-focused, formal, polychronic and expressive Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Brazil, Mexico 4. Relationship-focused, formal, polychronic and variably expressive Russia, Poland, Romania 5. Moderately deal-focused, formal, variably monochronic and expressive France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Hungary 6. Moderately deal-focused, formal, variably monochronic and reserved The Baltic States 7. Deal-focused, moderately formal, monochronic and reserved Britain, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Czech Republic 8. Deal-focused, informal, monochronic and variably expressive Australia, Canada, USA

 

Attributes of reserved business cultures
* People speak more softly, hardly interrupt each other and are more comfortable with silence that is the case with expressive cultures
* Expect interpersonal distance of about an arm's length and little physical contact aside from the handshake.
* Avoid intense, continuous eye contact across the negotiating table
* Expect very few hand and arm gestures and restrained facial expression

Attributes of expressive business cultures
* People often speak quite loudly, engage in conversational overlap and are uncomfortable with silence
* Expect interpersonal distance of half an arm's length or less and considerable physical touching
* Direct, even intense eye contact across the negotiating table signals interest and sincerity
* Expect lively facial expressions along with vigorous hand and arm gesturing.

Highlighting notable differences in expression

Conversational overlap and the meaning of silence:
While expressive people regard "conversational overlap" as a normal part of conversation, it is considered extremely rude by people from reserved societies. For instance, Northern European and North American negotiators are often frustrated by the constant interruptions they experience while conducting meetings in Italy, Spain or the former Yugoslavia. And the Asian negotiators take turns in a sort of verbal table-tennis match. Interestingly, the super-polite Japanese people not only take turns to avoid overlap but they also go a step further to pause five or ten seconds before taking their conversational turn. They often sit without speaking for what seems like an eternity to voluble Mexicans, Greeks or Americans. After three or four seconds the latter feel compelled to say something. Anything. To fill the silence. Unfortunately the loquacity of expressive people irritate the reticent Japanese, who seem to value the space between the spoken words just as much as the words themselves and who find their voluble counterparts rude and insulting. On the other hand, the people from expressive cultures like the Latins and Arabs tend to think that the Japanese are at loss for words or are indecisive.

Distance behavior
Every human being is surrounded by an invisible envelope of air called a space-bubble which varies in size according to (a) where in the world we grew up and (b) the particular situation. For instance, two Canadians who have just met at a social event are likely to stand about an arm's length away from each other. But he space bubble of the same two Canadians shrink to zero when they are embracing. No spatial problem exists as long as the people involve share similar-sized comfort zones. The differences begin in cross-cultural situations when different sized space bubbles collide. For instance, the Arab men show their friendliness by nearly collapsing in your arms. And, if you are a large bubble person, you will probably instinctively step back by which you will reflect your dislike towards him.

Box 8 Distance behaviour Close (20 to 35 cm) Distant (40 to 60 cm) The Arab world, Mediterranean region, Latin Europe, Latin America Most Asians, Northern, Central and Eastern Europeans, North Americans

Touching
Touch behavior regarded as proper in one culture may be quite inappropriate in another. Differences in touch behaviors are serious enough for problems to arise even between cultures located fairly closer together on the map. For example, the variation between the British and the French is surprisingly large considering that these two European nations are separated only by a channel of water. A couple of years ago, researchers studied comparative touch behavior in Paris and London cafeterias by counting the number of times couple touch each other. They counted about 100 times in Paris and zero times in London. While the British people think that the "moderate" Americans do far too much shoulder-patting, elbow-grabbing and back-slapping to please them, the Latin Americans often accuse Yanks of being snobbish and stand-offish as, they think, they do not engage in enough physical touching. Touching in the corporate relationships by and large consists of shaking hands and kissing.

Shaking hands
Among business people the world over the handshake is the most common form of physical contact. See Box No. 9 for a few of the variations.

Box 9 How hard should be the handshake Germans Firm, brisk, frequent French Light, quick frequent British Moderate Latin Firm, frequent Americans North Firm, infrequent Americans Arabs Gentle, repeated, lingering South Asians Gentle, often lingering Koreans Moderately firm Most Asians Very gentle, frequent

Most Europeans shake hands each time they meet and again when they take leave. North Americans shake hands less often than Europeans but more firmly than most Asians. In Asia, for men being introduced to female counterparts, one of the few rules of etiquette that is most universally valid is to wait for the woman to offer her hand.

Kissing
Non-Europeans visitors tend to be perplexed by the variety of kissing rituals in the multicultural mosaic that is Europe. Some of the guidelines are hereunder:

Box 10 Intense eye contact The Arab World, the Mediterranean Region, Latin European and Latin Americans Firm eye contact Northern Europe and North America Moderate Korea, Thailand, Most of the Africans Indirect Eye contact Most of Asia

 

* Do not worry about kissing or being kissed the first time you meet
* At subsequent meetings foreigners are excused from all that promiscuous kissing if they do not wish to participate. This will be a relief to many Asians who feel ill at ease with the strange and embarrassing custom of kissing people you barely know
* When kissing a woman's hand or cheek, you do not touch the skin. Just kiss the air a few millimeters from her hand or cheek. For kissing purposes space bubble shrinks considerably.
* The Brits usually kiss just once on the right cheek, the French kiss twice (on the left and right) and the passionate Belgians three times: left, right, left.
* Like the Italians and the Spanish, the reticent Germans prefer to kiss a lady's hand instead of her cheeks
* For non-European women: When a man raises your hand to his lips, just acknowledge the gallant gesture with a slight smile.
* The male visitors to Russia feel uncomfortable when the Russian men take them in their arms and kiss them on their lips.

Eye contact
Perhaps the subtlest form of body language is gaze behavior. We are easily confused when people use either stronger or weaker eye contact than we do. Box No. 10 displays the variation.

Box 11 Meaning of raised eyebrows North Americans Interest, surprise British Scepticism Germans “You are clever!” Filipinos “Hello” Arabs “No!” Chinese Disagreement

Very expressive cultures seem to value strong, direct eye contact. While conversing with the Arabs, Turks and Latin Europeans, one should look firmly in the eye. On the other hand, the business visitors to East and Southeast Asia should prepare themselves to encounter exactly the opposite style of gaze behavior. There a direct gaze may be interpreted as a hostile act. It might mean that you are trying to intimidate them or provoke them to a fight. To avoid such problems, some put on sunglasses. Unfortunately, that creates another problem: In Southeast Asia, it is rude to have sunglasses on when conversing with someone who is not wearing sunglasses.

Raised eyebrows
Negotiators are likely to encounter raised eyebrows in many parts of the world. But flashing one's eyebrows sends different signals in different cultures. In many a case the same expression can have a different meaning - sometimes an opposite meaning - in another culture (See box 11).
Thus, culture of a nation is soul deep. It runs through the veins of its mortals. Gets inseparably woven into the social, political and economic fabric of the land. And even as globalization blurs the boundaries and distinctions between nations, it grossly fails to sever man's ties with his land and the culture to which he belongs. So when one deals with people from the other part of the planet, one ought to take cognizance of their habits, values, attitudes, sentiments and expectations. And it is needful to remember that along with creating invisible barriers to trade, cultural differences may also pave way to new market opportunities. Only the savvy marketer will know what it takes to make the international customers tick.

The above article has been condensed/extracted from select chapters of Cross-cultural Business Behavior by Gesteland, Richard R., published by Viva Books Private Limited. All rights of the authors and publisher are reserved