Everyone seems to be working. You get the feeling that no one is lounging around and there is an energy, evidence of the abundant opportunity in this city. It seems to me that the work ethic is grounded in Hinduism, by that I mean the work ethic feels like “this is what we do; this is what we need to do; and we’re grateful to have the opportunity to do it.” I sense that from everyone, no matter how I come in contact with them. Really a different sensibility that’s very strong and committed to doing a good job, no matter what that job is. And a very deep-seated politeness.

I was so struck today by a remark a delegate voiced in one of our training sessions. We were talking about time zones and how complicated it is to arrange conference calls between the US and India because of the time difference. Some people said it was hard to work until 7pm and then get home (after braving the traffic) and have a call with colleagues in the US at 8pm. One fellow raised his hand and said, “It’s very difficult when you stay awake til midnight and then most of the team on the other end doesn’t even dial in.”

I know that time zone differences are among the most challenging aspects of virtual teams, and the idea has always been to “be fair” and rotate the pain. But it became so strongly personal as I listened to this manager, thinking of him staying awake until midnight only to have many of his colleagues on the other end not show up. Can you imagine how enormously frustrating and demoralizing that would be? What would that do to his morale?

Charlene

A recent Fortune article recognizes that companies that are best at developing leaders are those that have taken a long term perspective with their employees. To ensure the quality of their leadership, companies invest in their most promising candidates by requiring them to go on global developmental assignments. Most return with global, cross-cultural skills to effectively build the company’s presence in the global marketplace, which is where most now look to for revenue.

IBM came in at number one in the world for developing leaders in Fortune’s “Top Companies for Leaders” in 2009. One of IBM’s Corporate Service Corps teams was assigned to market locally crafted Ghanaian products around the world. The job “stretched me in a way we all absolutely need,” and “it gave us a shake in perspective,” said one of the team members.

“Developmental assignments like his are among the most important tools that great companies use to build leaders — and that average companies rarely use at all,” according to the article.

“The importance of such assignments and how they’re being adapted to pay off in today’s global economy are two of the strongest messages emerging from the research behind our new ranking of the world’s Top Companies for Leaders.”

International assignments have had a history marked with a mixture of success and failure, but perhaps this doesn’t need to repeat itself because you can learn the skills to adapt to other cultures, and to be successful in a global function. Individuals must spend significant time learning how to adjust their behavior to successfully interact with people from around the world (and before this, to recognize that there’s a cultural gap between themselves and their counterparts in other countries). Intercultural learning is another investment that many global companies make to prepare their leaders-in-the-making, especially in tandem with global assignments. Another key point is that as the global marketplace has grown, companies are recognizing how crucial it is that their leaders understand the range of global markets in which the company operates.

Click here to jump to the article.

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Since the publication of our new book, Managing Across Cultures: The Seven Keys to Doing Business with a Global Mindset (McGraw-Hill), we’ve been interviewed by publications ranging from Fortune magazine and Reuters down to podcasts released in Europe. Somewhere during the interview they all ask the same two questions: Why this book? Why now?

Obviously, culture and globalization have been around for a long time. However, developing cultural fluency has become a more urgent, everyday fact-of-life. We believe the answer to these questions fall into three categories:

The first is a workforce shift to knowledge-intensive work. Although globalization has been a force in the world for centuries, the need for cultural dexterity wasn’t as great when the work being managed was related to manufacturing and production. When the work requires the ability to inspire intellectual contribution, however, the manager must be skilled in cultural knowledge.

Secondly, there has been a huge increase in global virtual work and collaboration. Everyone involved in today’s global economy frequently find themselves interacting virtually. The dramatic expansion of collaborative software and the need to use that technology everyday increases the need for cultural awareness and fluency beyond those who manage workers and those who travel internationally to a far greater range of job responsibilities and employee levels.

The third category is the growing talent migration from one country to another. No matter which country you’re working in, you’re likely to have a far greater range of cultures working alongside you in your office. As we point out in Managing Across Cultures, you now need cultural skills for “working over there” as well as for “working over here.”

These reasons may be obvious, but we always need talking points to reinforce why culture is so important when discussing these ideas with people in our organizations.

Mike and Charlene

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Lately we’ve been reading a lot about the US automobile industry and the recovery plan for Chrysler (click here to read a New York Times piece on the subject). That plan includes Fiat’s acquisition of a significant portion (up to 20%) of the company. Fiat intends to bring their small-car technology, and take advantage of Chrysler’s network of dealerships to sell Fiats across the US. It’s a bold and ambitious plan, but it would be advantageous for Sergio Marchionne, Fiat’s CEO, to know that it was not an absence of technology that caused Daimler to lose 80% of its $36 billion investment in Chrysler. It was, in fact, a clash of national and corporate cultures.

Looking back to learn from that experience – managers and employees of both Daimler and Chrysler were completely unprepared for the significant hurdles their respective cultures would present. No one anticipated that Daimler dealers wouldn’t sell Chryslers and that its engineers wouldn’t share a chassis with Chrysler.

Signs of culture clash were apparent from the beginning: Chrysler’s executives flew coach to meetings in Germany, while their Daimler colleagues came to the US in first class. Then, like now, smart senior executives somehow failed to acknowledge the need to plan for cultural due diligence while taking care of financial and facility planning.

Marchionne’s plans overlook the cultural impact of having integrated management teams, consisting of Italian automakers and Chrysler management made of union and government officials, which will certainly sink this deal. Unlike Daimler, Fiat intends to invest no money of its own. Of course, it wasn’t the absence of German technology that sunk the DaimlerChrysler deal. It was, rather, culture clash that did the deal in.

- Mike

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Intellectual capital is the global business world’s primary asset, as President Obama reiterated this in his address to Congress yesterday:

“In a global economy, where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity. It is a pre-requisite.”

Education must progress and cultural competency needs to be an inherent aspect of learning. A global mindset must be developed by everyone to take advantage of being part of a globalized planet.

- Mike

See the transcript of the speech here on the New York Times website.

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+ Singapore is a multi-ethnic society accustomed to foreigners where Chinese, Malay and Indian traditions coexist beneath the veneer of a western, modern metropolis.

+ Face is an important cultural concept in Singapore, which roughly translates to reputation, and can be lost by openly criticizing someone, challenging someone in authority (especially if done in public), showing anger at another person or refusing a request by saying “no.”

+ A law passed in 1996 states that parent’s offspring must assume their financial responsibility, should the need arise. This is indicative of senior citizen’s high status and the challenges facing a small country as the next generation becomes more individualistic.

+ Singaporeans are group dependent and rely on facial expression, tone of voice and posture to tell them what someone feels. They often trust non-verbal messages more than the spoken word.

+ Many foreigners who live in Singapore think of it as “Asia Light,” since the culture is not as formal as in Japan or Korea – and in many ways it may appear quite Western.

+ The government recognizes two kinds of Singaporeans: “Heartlanders” are typically older, less educated, factory workers who are more comfortable speaking their native language. “Cosmopolitans” are highly educated, middle-class, business owners or employees of multinational corporations who are comfortable working in an English-speaking environment and often travel abroad.

+ Singapore prides itself on being corruption free; consequently, business gifts are not part of the culture. The government is so firm on maintaining their status as independent that officials may not even accept entertainment invitations.

- taken from RW3′s CultureWizard™ Country Profiles

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Over the past several weeks we’ve shared some articles and commentary on the increasing importance of international life experience for today’s business and political leaders. The most recent Newsweek has an excellent article on exactly the subject, focusing on several members of President Obama’s team: Timothy Geithner, Valerie Jarrett, Marine Gen. James L. Jones and Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration. We all know President Obama’s international history. In fact, he mentioned in his first TV interview with Al-Arabiya that he has Muslim family members and spent years living in the world’s largest Muslim country, Indonesia.

The article goes on to expand on how these appointees feel their international life experience has enhanced “their view of world events” and, thus, their qualifications for the critical roles they now fill.

General James Jones, President Obama’s National Security Adviser, describes what it is like to live abroad: “You develop a fine ear for listening to nuance, and to what it is people are saying, but also how they are saying it…You have to be able to look at the same problem through different prisms to be…successful in the international environment.”

Mike

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It seems the world has recently become more aware than ever of the challenges facing global virtual teams, as we’ve been asked by many of our clients to conduct programs that will help make their global teams more effective. As a result of this interest, we’ve expanded our chapter on Global Teams in our forthcoming book, Managing Across Cultures (McGraw-Hill, May 2009), and are creating new Virtual Teams tools for CultureWizard.

If this is an issue you’re familiar with, please download our Desktop Guide to Global Virtual Teams PDF.

It’s no surprise this has become a top-of-mind issue. Imagine being treated by a doctor who never sees you personally, but is able to diagnose and surgically operate via computer programs; imagine watering a garden remotely, yet never being able to see its flowers in person. In a similar way, working virtually denies access to important visual and sensory cues, which themselves present a challenge to comprehensive communication and good teamwork. Compound that with cultural and linguistic differences and you have some serious hurdles to overcome before you can capitalize on long-distance collaboration made possible by technology.

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Trevor Gay, creator of Simplicity, a literary blog, and author of Simplicity is Key, “highly” recommends Charlene Solomon and Michael Schell’s book, Managing Across Cultures.

“For anyone whose work involves understanding cultural diversity and the nuances of different cultures (by the way – that means ALL of us) I recommend with great enthusiasm a book I’ve just finished reading; Managing Across Cultures: The Seven Keys to Doing Business with a Global Mindset.”

Simplicity was chosen as one of the “Top 100 Leadership Blogs” by Best Universities.com in February 2009. Click here to read his full recommendation.

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As I read this Telegraph article on Hooters restaurants in China, I’m chuckling about the translation of the chain into “The American Owl.” The real question here is: does the Chinese language have a slang term similar to “hooters”? Either this wasn’t given thought, there wasn’t a fitting word, or it would have been too risky to chose any other option. This website notes a mythological view of owls in China, which says they harness occult powers. I wonder what other connotations this bird carries. The fact that Hooters did pay attention to giving their restaurants an apt name is progressive.

The story reminds me of how names lose a lot of their meaning in translation.

Kentucky Fried Chicken’s slogan “Finger Lickin’ Good” was translated into “Lick Your Fingers Off” in China. There’s also the famous story of a car made by Chevy: the Nova. It became a laughable topic of conversation in Spanish speaking countries, where “no va” literally means “no go” in English.

As Hooters, and other businesses, move into new countries, they face the challenge of adapting themselves to capture the local and national audiences they seek. Having the appropriate cultural resources are as priceless as having the opportunity to venture into an emerging market.

We’d love to hear any stories you’d have to share.

Mike

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On Friday, November 21st, at the close of a dismal week on the NY Stock Exchange, the Market suddenly took a sharp turn upward. By the time it closed an hour later, it had shot up nearly 500 points! What happened to cause such a euphoric bounce?

It was leaked that President-elect Barack Obama was going to appoint Timothy Geithner as the incoming Treasury Secretary. Who is this man who created such a stir on the NYSE? We quickly learned that in addition to having been president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for the last five years, Geithner has a background in Asian studies, international economics, has studied Japanese and Chinese, and lived in East Africa, India, Thailand, China and Japan! He credited these global experiences as critical components of his background and skill base. Surprisingly, the media barely reported on Geithner’s global exposure.

Since little reference to these facts was made, we felt it was important to reinforce the crucial nature of global competencies and how they will continue to become leadership criteria in the 21st century. This lack of coverage is unfortunate, as Geithner’s experience fits in completely with what we’ve been discovering about the skills and background required for global leadership today, both in business and in government. Previously, we’ve commented about how Barack Obama’s multi-cultural background and experiences living abroad have added to his credentials and potential as a world leader. This also fits with a study RW³ conducted with ORC Worldwide, “The Importance of Cultural Skills for Global Business Leadership,” which confirms the importance of global experience in leadership.

Whether it is the banking or financial industry, the auto industry or government, we’re reminded everyday how a new kind of leadership is needed. In order to find that leadership we have to embrace diversity and recognize that skills for the 21st century will regard cultural plurality and will consider the ramifications of its ignorance.

The NYSE celebrated in that moment on November 21st because it is understood our economy is globally interdependent, which means that those who lead must have a global mindset. Unless you’re aware that people around the world think differently, are motivated differently and have values and beliefs that are unique, vital information will be overlooked and opportunities will be passed unknowingly. If one can’t see these clues, one can’t react to them. It seems that Geithner embodies these capacities and has attained the vision and perspective to spearhead the economic misfortune of our time. Learn more about him here.

Mike

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We’re very excited to share the cover art for our upcoming book, Managing Across Cultures: The Seven Keys to Doing Business with a Global Mindset.

It will be released by McGraw-Hill on May 22, 2009. Let us know what you think!

See it on their website here. Pre-order the book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Borders.

Mike and Charlene
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International Herald Tribune article.

RW3

Every time I hear or read about a potential business acquisition or merger–especially international ones–I wonder how the smart people who run those organizations can overlook the vital element of cultural integration challenges. The proposed acquisition-merger of Anheuser–Busch (an American company) with InBev (a Belgian-Brazilian company) is another example.

As the WSJ article points out, AB has a hugely popular external-facing focus. Indeed, these are the folks who brought you the Bud Bowl, Spud–the dog, and the Clydesdale commercials. These have been elevated to American icons, with mythologies around them.

In contrast, InBev has a much lower-key profile. In our cultural parlance, this is the proverbial “tip of the iceberg” and the invisible cultural differences will play a major role in how well these companies can succeed through integration. The history of previous deals should make it clear that just as you do a financial and facility due diligence in responsibly examining the impact of a big business deal, so too should businesses examine the cultural challenges they’ll encounter.

Mike
RW3

New York Times.