When doing international business, there are certain things you must know. The basic business information is not enough; you also need to develop cultural awareness.
What You Don’t Know Can Kill Your International Business
Finding Value in Differences – “Be courageous and use your imagination.”
I’m encouraged when I find real-world examples of finding value in differences. It reaffirms my belief that we are doing good work, the right work, in helping companies do better business through valuing cultural differences. The latest example appeared last
Does This Make You Feel Uncomfortable?
[To skip the background article and go directly to the quiz, click here: Cultural IQ Quiz] FOMO – Fear of Missing Out. It drives our modern, high-speed culture. We worry that we’ll miss the next big thing or fail to be
No Fishing Poles!
‘No Polish fishermen’ sign removed after outcry There has been much ado around Billy Evans, the owner/manager of Field Farm fisheries, who decided to ban Polish “and other Eastern bloc” fisherman from using his farm-stocked recreational fishing ponds near Oxfordshire
Beware of False Equivalence
I get it. You want to be inclusive. You want to show us that you’re aware that not everyone has a Christian upbringing and celebrates Christmas as you do. You also want to show that you’re not ethnocentric, that you
13-year Dutch-Parisien Marriage on the Rocks
After 13 years of partnership, Air France and KLM are sick of each other. The French have “discovered” that the Dutch are boorish oafs; the Dutch think that all the French care about is organizing their next strike. This is
Charlottesville – Where There Is No Compromising
The extreme right-wing, racist incident that has happened in Charlottesville, Virginia (USA), during this past week, has been a hot topic, including among the colleagues here at BRIL.Solutions. (If you want further details, please see the sidebar.) I set up
Can We Get Along? A California Conversation About Immigration
Immigration. Mass migrations of people from one country to another is now the highest since the close of WWII. As of late, I’ve only needed to keep up with my local news sources to see Syrian and South Sudanese civilians
Intercultural Competency in SCRUM-Team Outsourcing
Johan Zandhuis, our client, and IT expert, has published a fascinating article discussing how outsourcing can turn hidden yet avoidable costs into visible, albeit avoidable, pain. He acknowledges the crucial role of management and the importance of effective communication, most specifically between offshore and onshore teams. His recognition of what it takes to
We don’t know what we don’t know
I’ve been a bit disturbed by the general tenor of the conversation on the LinkedIn group ExpatWeb (members only) the past week or so. The opening question was, “Cross-cultural training: waste of time, money and efforts?” The reaction from the
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