The world of trade has never been a respecter of international borders. When
Arab nomads domesticated the camel 3,000 years ago it enabled them to trade
in silk and spices from the Far East. The challenges that faced them in
doing business with different cultures must have been formidable.
With trade becoming increasingly global, understanding cross-cultural
differences has become essential for doing business on the world stage.
Restaurants, for example, are a potential minefield when it comes to cultural
differences. In Japan, if you are eating noodles then you might expect to
pick them up with a pair of chopsticks, twirl them round and eat them. You
Japanese host, meanwhile will pick them up with their chopsticks, deposit
them in their spoon and eat them that way, only using the chopsticks to
guide them into their mouth. Sloppy noodle-eating is unlikely to be a deal
breaker but these small etiquette nightmares can add up.
Daniel Cumpsty, who runs City recruitment firm Universe Technology and who
spent a year living in Japan, says: “In more traditional restaurants where
they have rush matting (called tatami) you must remove your shoes before
standing on the matting. They will also have special slippers for going to
the toilet. Do not make the mistake that some business travellers make and
walk on the tatami matting with the toilet slippers on.”
He adds: “Seating is very important in restaurants too. The most important or
venerated person should go with his/her back to the wall, with the least
important with backs facing the rest of the establishment.”
How you behave at the dinner table might not be so important in Brazil but the
time you turn up is. In the UK it is fashionable for the bride to arrive a
few minutes late, in Brazil it is the prerogative of the business executive.
A delay of 10 to 15 minutes is expected if you are meeting out at a
restaurant and perhaps half an hour if you have been invited round to a
client’s house for dinner. Despite this, you are expected to be punctual for
any meetings. Confused? You should be.
What to talk about is less of a challenge? It may seem like a cliché but
football is one of the safest topics to cover with your Brazilian hosts.
Over in South Africa, it might seem that apartheid would be a taboo subject.
But Jonathon Rees, the South African owner of science communication agency
Proof, says not. “Apartheid is a valid subject but should be raised gently
and appropriately. The transition and how it is being handled is critical to
South Africa’s social and economic success, so it is a valid business topic.
People tend to look forward rather than backwards, and I suspect most people
have had the apartheid conversation almost to death now, so it needs to be
raised in a cautious and interested way, with an interesting angle.”
According to Neil Payne of cross-cultural training consultancy Kwintessential,
business etiquette tips can be misleading. “If you go to Japan to do
business, they don’t expect you to bow or exchange business cards in a
particular way. They think it’s good if you do but they don’t expect it.
They expect faux pas to be made by international business people just as
business people here would.”
Payne says that the companies and individuals that come to him for training do
not want etiquette tips specifically but rather how to build successful
relationships across cultures. “A lot of what we do is based around team
building. You might have a manager looking after teams based around the
world and for them it is made more difficult because they are working
remotely.”
There are plenty of etiquette guides out there if you do want a few handy
hints on conducting business, although most people do forget them in the
heat of the moment. Below are a few of the more unusual dos and don’ts for
international business travellers.
Bahrain
Don’t look at your watch when you are in a business meeting – it is considered
a sign of disrespect.
