Do I shake your hand? Anecdotes from afar
Being aware of cultural differences. By Andrew Bell, Fortune Magazine

Receiving people from different cultures.
With worldwide activities expanding and general consolidation of industries impacting the way we do business, middle management is being required to have a cultural sophistication far beyond that of a generation ago. Before we interacted with locals culturally acclimatized to our company, and now we have to have cultural sensitivity training, speak three languages, and know the latest on current affairs in three different countries. Shape up or ship out can be the subtle message being communicated by our bosses. Read about three people who tell us about receiving business relations from different countries and a few funny stories.

The auto show in Geneva (by Lucas Humble, from Mercedes)
The annual auto show in Geneva is one of the industry highlights and tends to draw visitors from around the world. We feature our latest cars and want our product stars to shine. We receive reps from all areas of the auto sector and of course these people are from all over the world. In the Middle East and the UAE and more specifically Dubai, there tends to be culturally, people that are used to a formality that one rarely sees in Europe. This means that we have to be on the alert and have to be able to identify these potential clients’ origins immediately. One can usually tell by the entourage. I look for the people around the boss. I try to follow suit.

A trade fair in Seoul (by Sung Park, The Shilla hotel)
I have had people from around the world visiting. On one occasion, we had an American businessman who was interested in organizing a series of major conferences in our hotel. Further to this, he was interested in seeing true Korean culture, so we showed him the town. Needless to say, that sitting on the floor, which is very common in Korean culture, and eating rice for breakfast, which is not common in the US, took some time for our guest to feel comfortable with. He was relieved to have bacon and eggs the next morning. I think the cuisine and formality are the challenges foreigners face here.

Meeting Clients in Mexico City (by Alphonso Rodriquez, Ford car part representative)
Mexico City is huge. Visiting can disorientate even the most seasoned traveller. I work for a company that supplies car parts to American car manufacturers. As a consequence, we see a lot of foreigners. This can include purchasers from all over the world. One of the most interesting experiences was recently when a purchaser from Toyota visited our production facility. We had organized several meetings but some of the managers were not aware that there had been a change in schedule. Also getting around Mexico City and region was a nightmare. We had to reorganize several meetings. I think our Japanese colleague was not very impressed. We got the contract though.

An IT conference. (by Ali Hasan, on Denmark visits Rabat)
I recently had the possibility to assist in a symposium based on IT technology transfers between the EU and Morocco. The two day conference took place in a swanky hotel called the Tour Hassan, located in the city of Rabat. Perhaps one of the most ill at ease moments was to see how Europeans take liberty in interacting with our officials. The minister of industry was present and he was liberally approached by two Danish IT specialists. I was able to avert a compromising situation by distracting our Danish guests, but it was obvious they do not do a lot of work in our part of the world.