However, in some culture, such practice may be taken as a rude process. For instance, being indirect is a form of politeness in Japan. But such will be seen as nothing but a form of dishonesty in the American business scenario.
How to Approach Foreign Markets from the Perspective of Culture
In the event of conducting business relationships, there are a number of strategies that business parties can use to approach the foreign markets from the perspective of culture. Some of them are the following:
Prior learning of the culture of one foreign business party will not do any harm to the other.
Before conducting business with a party from another region, it will be helpful for international companies to learn some cultural background of the other part. It is important to consider that not every people, especially between those that come from totally different cultural background, have similar regard for culture. Hence, it is always safe to think that the culture of other is very important to them.
Use the perspective of culture as an important factor to consider when deciding to have business with an international company.
Culture sometimes affects how a company grows. When good culture is being practiced in a company, chances are the company has the ability to provide good business relationship with other companies as well as to its customers. It is always important to realize that good culture imbibed within the people of a company in some ways assure that business relationship with them throughout the entire business partnership can flow smoothly.
If possible, attend trainings to learn more about the culture of the other party.
Learning the culture of the other party is both an investment and insurance to consider. To ensure a higher chance of a successful...
However, a technique can be used to deviate from the cultural differences. Researches and studies have found that while trying to join the belief of another company during cultural differences, trying to encourage them at the same time with your principle is an effective strategy to win over them without the consequence of inter-company problems.
These days, many companies are opening their doors to diversity. In fact, cultural differences are no longer a big barrier to companies when it comes to business relationships with foreign markets. Managing cultural differences can be simply done by learning how to appreciate the culture of one another. Moreover, recognizing the positive and negative impact of cultural differences can help companies to develop and improve their work procedures and business operations to be able to succeed in cultural differences, or also known as diversity. According to Stephen Rhinesmith, as extracted from Cultural Savvy Online,
Diversity...will be the engine that drives...the corporation of the 21st Century.
Successful global managers will be able to manage this diversity for the innovative and competitive edge of their corporations."
References
The Pitfalls of Cross-Cultural Business, in Risk Management, March 2004, Volume 51, Pages: 38-43, by Jared Wade
Business: A hyper market, The Economist, London, April7, 2001
Cultural Savvy.
Retrieved on Sept. 05, 2005, from Online. http://www.culturalsavvy.com/differences.htm
