international business

International Business Negotiation Training

As anyone is the business world can tell you, business negotiations have gone global. With a new interest in the global marketplace, you will likely at some point act as a negotiator with counterparts from other countries. You will undoubtedly find it to be in your best business interests to learn more about international business negotiation. This type of negotiating can be learned through specialized training courses. With an effective trainer to help, you can gain new skills in the area of business negotiating to make you a more effective negotiator.

Preparing for these specialized negotiations may take longer than the negotiation sessions with which you are familiar. You will need translators for speakers of all languages involved, so that all will be able to understand what is happening in the meeting. It is to your advantage to learn enough of each language that will be spoken to at least be able to greet all of the negotiators in person. This will add a personal touch that will help set a friendly tone for the rest of the meeting. In addition, you will need to become familiar with manners and customs of people from the different cultures with whom you will be negotiating. Not only will this go a long way toward helping them to relax and feel comfortable in the meeting, but it will help you to avoid social faux pas that might damage a fledgling business relationship and hamper the business negotiations. Read the rest of this entry »

Hurdles to Cross Cultural Business Communication

International businesses are facing new challenges to their internal communication structures due to major reforms brought about through internationalization, downsizing, mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures.
Lack of investment in cross cultural training and language tuition often leads to deficient internal cohesion. The loss of clients/customers, poor staff retention, lack of competitive edge, internal conflicts/power struggles, poor working relations, misunderstandings, stress, poor productivity and lack of co-operation are all by-products of poor cross cultural communication.
Cross cultural communications consultants work with international companies to minimise the above consequences of poor cross cultural awareness. Through such cooperation, consultancies like Kwintessential have recognised common hurdles to effective cross cultural communication within companies.
Here we outline a few examples of these obstacles to cross cultural co-operation:
Lack of Communication
It may seem obvious to state that non-communication is probably the biggest contributor to poor communication. Yet it continues to prove itself as the major problem within most companies.
Lack of communication with staff is not solely due to lack of spoken dialogue. Rather it relates to access to information.
For example, not giving feedback (negative or positive), informing staff of decisions and actions that will affect their roles or failure to properly communicate expectations are all ways in which information can be withheld from staff. This will eventually result in an alienated staff base that feels divided from management and superiors.
If managers are too selective in providing information, this can cause suspicion and jealousy among staff and will eventually result in internal strife instead of cohesion.
A management which does not and will not communicate and interact physically with staff demonstrates a lack of interest, trust and respect.
In the West it is often the case that communication lines are vertical. Staff report up to managers and managers up to senior levels and so on. Ideally lines of communication should run both ways. Those with a subordinate place in the communication process tend to feel estranged, indifferent and possibly even belligerent.
Lack of communication in all its forms is unhealthy. Companies and managers must be aware of how, what and to whom they are communicating. Read the rest of this entry »

Doing Business in India – Business and Culture

When looking at a country from another cultural background, you tend to wear a kind of “cultural eyeglasses.” You often interpret everything from your own cultural conditioning. Things may seem irrational, frustrating, or upsetting, simply because of that conditioning. This is fertile ground for future conflicts in many areas. To me, culture is an iceberg, where the main force is resting beneath the surface.

There are two major, typical miscalculations foreign corporations tend to make when they approach the Indian market.

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Tags: international business, the joy of international business

The joy Of International Business

international business