Madison Who’s Who Blog

Small businesses are often unprepared to engage in global commerce. As soon as your internet door is open online, you have issued an invitation to the world, not just your local community.
For effective global networking, your website needs to be “global friendly”. Sharon Houseley of Go Get Global provides a list of basic considerations .

1. Payment Options - vary from country to country, therefore offering flexible payment options are important. While PayPal might be a good option for consumer-oriented products, this service is not widely used by businesses and is only available to customers in specific countries. In order to attract global customers, businesses must provide a variety of payment options that customers, in different countries, are familiar and comfortable with.

2. Currency Distinction - provides added convenience to a potential customer, and shows an understanding and respect for global audiences. A currency converter is a good option, especially for large companies who may be dealing with many countries. When listing prices clearly indicate the country currency, such as between US dollars and Canadian dollars. This distinction will prevent misconceptions and prevent customer dissatisfaction.

3. Contact Information - should be given for a country code, along with the area code, when listing phone numbers. It should not be assumed that customers know the numbers to dial foreign calls. Since the standards of address formats can differ from country to country, ensure that the mailing address listed on the website is properly formatted. In this time of rapidly expanding use of numbers, if your area code changes, don’t forget to change the information on your website.

4. Delivery Options - should make sense for all customers. Ensure that they have full knowledge of shipping information to avoid delay and error. If a shipping option is not available for a specific region be sure that is clearly stated on the website. Provide estimates as to when the product will arrive to various regions, so that customers have appropriate expectations about delivery time frames.

5. Order Forms - when creating order forms use terminology that is universal; if possible, where relevant, refer to postal codes rather than zip codes. The terminology on the order form should support the fact that the company sells to an international audience.

6. Payment Policy - clearly state payment policies on any order pages, if purchase orders or wire transfers are not accepted from specific countries be sure that the policy is clearly stated. Prepare an explanation as to why the policies are in place. Customers understand that foreign purchase orders are not legally binding and will not feel alienated if an explanation is offered and clearly stated.

7. Spelling - can vary, so avoid using terminology on the website that would cause confusion or look like careless spelling mistakes. Be clear and concise as many customers may be viewing your website in their second language. A website that can be viewed in different languages is all the better for communicating with foreign customers.

“Ultimately the goal is to make purchasing the product or service easy for a customer. A website that respects cultural differences, as well as the nuances of language and terminology, will go a long way in attracting an international audience.”
from Website Globalization

Mediation, an alternative method to resolving disputes more frequently seen in America, is being viewed as “a new way of thinking” in Scotland, with hundreds of mediators being trained by advocate John Sturrock QC, founder of Core Solutions.

“I don’t think mediation should just be a discipline out on its own,” he says. “It should weave its way through everything that people are taught.

“Companies often ask for or threaten things which are ways of defensively preserving your patch, if you like, rather than talking about what they want to achieve, and, better than that, what they need to achieve, and then matching that with the other side. If the latter approach is taken, you can create a more sustainable deal.”

Sturrock and Leathes have spent the past couple of days meeting Scotland’s financial heavyweights, a “select” group of business leaders from the private and public sectors, academics and in-house legal counsel, in a bid to drive home the mediation message.

It is part of a concerted effort to make Scottish organizations more “dispute-wise”, integrating contentious issues into the overall business planning process.”

Viewed as almost a “shuttle diplomacy”, it is a non-adversarial approach to disputes resulting in substantial savings when employed.

“It found that a typical case dealing with a disgruntled employee costs £277,000 - a figure that could be cut to £9,000 if the dispute is mediated in the early stages.”
(source)

Executive perks are widely viewed by the general public with either disdain or indignation and, indeed, there are some grounds for that to have become the prevailing sentiment. However, to condemn the idea of perks or incentives across the board is foolish and counter productive. Sadly, it seems perks distributed today aren’t at all that sexy anyway.

“The perks many U.S. executives are bragging about in the steam room these days aren’t the lifestyle luxuries of the past, such as country-club memberships and limousines. Now they’re talking about more mundane benefits such as tax and estate advice.

General Electric Co., Fairfield, Conn., paid $143,154 for financial advice for four of its top executives in 2002.”
(Source)

Some perks serve to keep the executive perpetually tuned in to his global network, decreasing or infringing on vacation and down time.

“As technology threatens to make life easier, executive perquisites are one reason employees stay connected to work outside of the office. According to the Compensation Data annual survey of more than 5,300 employers, 64.6 percent of companies offered executives cell phones as a perk, while 43.6 percent were given laptops or home PCs in 2006. With these kinds of perks, it´s no surprise employees are expected to stay plugged in to the office long after they´ve left for the day.

Companies are now providing employees with cellular phones, pagers, BlackBerrys and laptops to keep them hard at work while on vacation or away from the office. With phone, e-mail and Internet access at their fingertips, employers expect middle management and executive level employees to stay more in tune to the organization than non-management employees. As technology continues to advance, executives should expect to spend even more of their time on call.”

Most companies understand that their CEOs straddle a global network of increasing complexity and incessant demands and that these modern day warriors, in the majority of cases, well deserve the company car or country club membership, and a newer trend; supplemental life insurance and annual physicals are also being offered.

“While companies are offering more practical perquisites to employees, there is still a significant percentage providing more classic perks, like company cars and club memberships,” said Amy Kaminski, manager of marketing programs for Compdata Surveys. “As more executives stretch to meet the growing demands of this fast-paced work environment, it will be interesting to see if companies begin to offer health-focused perks for their executive-level employees.”
(source)

The cultural hazards of conducting global business is a subject familiar to all executives.
Expatriate management teams must steep themselves in the culture and history of their host country, sensitive to missteps in communications and methods of conducting business that can doom or severely damage cooperation. Something as simple as a handshake or a glance held too long can have unexpected cultural implications.

Networking American style is not an option. A woman executive in Hungary may extend her hand only to have it kissed, instead of shaken. Doing business in Switzerland demands promptness, a certain formality, avoiding ostentatiousness or undue familiarity. In Estonia, where personal relationships are highly valued, the executive will find a more informal network, yet still one where surnames are used and displays of wealth a cause for affront.

A recently released study asserts that poor cross cultural communication was found to be the greatest hindrance between offshore and onshore workers.

Of course, the need for cross cultural training has been met by the marketplace and the global executive would do well to equip themselves for the many subtle demands of global networking.

Intercultural Press has been publishing cross cultural material for over 25 years. Espirit Global Learning, who specializes in coaching executives to “master the challenges of communication, culture, time and distance in conducting business internationally”, provides “Twenty Strategies for Successful Cross-Cultural Interaction”, the first five of which appear below.

Twenty Cross-Cultural Strategies for Effective Intercultural Interaction

Interculturally effective persons:

1. Have a concept of culture and are aware of the pervasive influence it has on human interaction. They recognize that every cultural custom, whether they can accept it or not, has cultural integrity.

2. Are aware of their own cultural beliefs, values, and attitudes. The more they understand their own culture and cultural identity, the more they can perceive their
own perspective, their interpretation of other cultures through their cultural lens from cultural conditioning, and their reactions to others’ behavior and events. Example:
the North American tendency to “get down to business” or the Latin American tendency to establish relationships first. They recognize also how others may view them as a “product” of their culture.

3. Have knowledge of other countries and cultures and demonstrate the curiosity to expand that knowledge. Expatriate and transferred managers especially understand
the history, geography, social mores, customs, political system, and socio-economic these factors impact their
assignment and goal achievement. For example, a manager from Europe working in the USA is able to understand the American custom of displaying the national flag both before and since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks without judging this phenomenon as good/bad, right/wrong.

4. Practice empathy: The ability to see reality as others experience it in their respective cultures. We tend to prefer to work with leaders who give the impression
who give the impression that they understand things from our own perspective.

5. Show respect in their attitudes and behavior for other cultures and customs.Examples: making the effort to pronounce someone’s name correctly, learning a few
key words of the language(s) of a country where one is doing business, and following social protocol such as respecting hierarchy. In much of Latin America, for example,the manager will develop a close, even protective the manager will develop a close, even protective relationship with employees who may expect him or her to understand their family situation and how family life impacts their jobs
(source)

A quick perusal of the internet will reveal ample resources to educate the world traveler as to what constitutes offense in whatever country that he or she conducts business in.

Forbes Conferences approach a historical first in bringing the Forbes CEO Forum to Arabian Gulf State of Qatar.Hosted by the Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment & Development Company under the patronage of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa, the Forbes CEO Middle East Forum will be presiding over this invitation only event at the end of February.

CEOs expanding their global reach into the middle east will want to take advantage of the March 1st extended deadline to register their company in Forbes Global 2000, the Official Networking Guide.

“The guide, which provides essential information on the Arab World’s most progressive companies and its leading Chairmen, Presidents and Chief Executive Officers..

The Official Networking Guide is rightfully recognized as a precise and intensely targeted PR tool for the region’s most successful corporations; it essentially delivers your company information and CEO’s biography straight into the hands of the Forbes Global 2000…
[..]
With an introduction by Steve Forbes, the guide contains special reports, viewpoints and editorial on some of the key agenda topics that will be debated at the Forbes CEO Middle East Forum — Real Estate, Luxury Retail, Energy, Telecoms, Financial Services, Sport, Family Business and Human Capital; and ensures the delivery of regional business intelligence and each participating company’s profile, CEO biography, and contact information direct to the world’s most influential corporate executives.”
(source)