b.Business: The Inconcenient Facts

Several days ago, I happened to got a book from my friend named “Cross-Cultural Business Behavior”. It summarizes numerous subtle details of marketing negotiating, sourcing and managing cross cultures. It metioned an old Chinese saying – “Ru Xiang Sui Su” which is similar to ” Do as the Romans do”. This reminds me that the very first priority before talking to some local people is to adapt to their habit. As theres an apparent difference between relationship-focused (RF) and deal-focused (DF) business behavior, the way people make the first approach impacts the results, imediately.

The vast majority of the world’s market are relationship-oriented: the Arab world and most of Africa, Latin America, and the Asia/Pacific region. These are markets where people avoid doing business with strangers. They get things done through intricate networks of personal contacts.

In contrast, the deal-focused approach is common in only a small part of the world. Strongly DF cultures are found primarily in northern Europe (probably here^_~), North America, Australia and New Zeland, where people are relatively open to doing business with strangers.

This Great Divide between the world’s cultures affects the way we conduct business from the beginning to the end of any commercial relationship. For starters, the way we make the first approach to potential buyers or partners depends upon whether they are in DF or RF cultures.

When reading through the book, I found that there are more “annoying” rules in east Asian countries (Group: Relationship-Focused – Formal – Monochronic – Reserved) than other places, especially thos DF areas. An Itialian must be killed by Chinese clock-worshipping behavior. A Japanese must be scared by a passionate American hug. A French might misunderstand Indian’s guesture “OK” as nothing or zero. As long as obeying the principle, people can start the conversation successfully, or the misunderstanding will appear automatically before anything. Right?

Well begun is half done.More understanding and less misunderstanding is what everyone looks forward before the agreement. Such a principle works on communication the same.