The Art of Doing Business Across Cultures

Book excerpt: The go-to guide for intercultural competence in the global business arena. In 50 short, simple conversations, speakers from two different cultures misinterpret each other, with serious consequences for the bottom line and ongoing business relations. The Art of Doing Business Across Cultures presents five brief (8-10 lines), unsuccessful conversational exchanges between Americans and their business colleagues in 10 different locations-the Arab Middle East, Brazil, China, England, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, and Russia. These situations illustrate the five most common cultural differences between Americans (and other northern Europeans) and each of the featured cultures through debriefing each conversation to illustrate where the cultural mistake occurred, and suggesting a practical fix to prevent similar misunderstandings in the future. The Art of Doing Business Across Cultures is a quick tour of the most common cultural differences Americans/No. Europeans encounter when doing business in ten of the world's key markets.