Cultural Cheat Sheet: Grow Global.

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Navigate 10 largest economies in 5 minutes

Doing business in China

Five Ways to Succeed Five Ways to Fail

Be sincere: it’s the quality most prized by the Expect quick results
Chinese
Do favours: it’s a great way to build Lose your temper or get impatient – it shows a
relationships and they will be returned lack of control
Show respect to senior people and older people Fail to keep regular contact

Spend time building the relationship Be extravagant or immodest in your dress,

behaviour or personal habits
Reciprocate: if someone asks for your help, Ignore Chinese social etiquette – especially at
help them mealtimes

Doing business in the USA

Five Ways to Succeed Five Ways to Fail

Be positive and clear about what you do and
who you are
Network and be visible
Deliver on time and on budget
Use British understatement and sarcastic
humour
Make un-PC comments about sex, race and
religion
Suggest that Americans lack a sense of humour
Adopt a relaxed and friendly approach
Be supportive: modify proposals, don’t reject
them
Doing business in India
Five Ways to Succeed
Spend time building the relationship
Do things on the phone of face-to-face when
you can
Check performance and delivery – but with
courtesy
Be more relaxed about time and schedules
Build a basic knowledge of India’s religions and
dietary customs
Doing business in Japan
Five Ways to Succeed
Spend time building a good relationship
Work hard and earn trust
Socialize – sing in a karaoke session even if
you’ve got a lousy voice
Stress team achievement, not individual
achievement
Study Japanese business protocol – correct
process is as important as a good result
Fail to advise of slippage in the project
Slip out for a beer at lunchtime
Five Ways to Fail
Keep your human side hidden
Be patronizing – India ceased being a part of
the British Empire more than 60 years ago
Show intolerance if things don’t happen exactly
the way you expect
Show impatience if things don’t happen in your
timescale
Fail to adapt to local business customs and
adapt them to your needs
Five Ways to Fail
Try and stand out as an individual in a land of
consensus
Cause a Japanese person to lose face in front of
others
Try to rush people into an agreement
Ignore Japanese protocol and customs
Talk loudly, gesticulate extravagantly
Doing business in Brazil
Five Ways to Succeed
Build the relationship
Dress your best – good clothes and accessories,
clean and pressed
In all-male company, compliment the beauty of
Brazilian women
Brazilians are very house proud: accept if they
invite you for dinner or just a drink
Stay in good hotels – style matters
Doing business in Russia
Five Ways to Succeed
Be patient
Be firm, even tough, in your negotiations – the
Russians value leadership and strength
Respect the Russian calendar: their meeting
times may not be the same as yours
Pay attention to the hierarchy: it’s important to
give due respect to the boss.
Show personal warmth: Russians build business
on personal relationships
Five Ways to Fail
Avoid mentioning Portuguese or Argentinian
superiority in any area
Insist on bringing up the disparity of wealth in
Brazil
Decline social invitations
Be inflexible, stiff and formal
Ask to see the favelas, Brazil’s shanty towns
where guns and drugs are frequent
Five Ways to Fail
Criticize Russia
Compromise too early in a negotiation
Show disunity in the team
Neglect to check what ties behind the
prosperous front
Use ‘hard sell’ rather than ‘academic sell’
tactics in negotiating
Doing business in the United Kingdom
Five Ways to Succeed
Deliver on time, without drama
Arrive at meetings punctually
If you’re having difficulties, ask advice
immediately rather than risk missing a deadline
Check at the end of a meeting exactly what the
Brits expect of you
Join them for a beer after work, or in the gym
(many Brits now avoid alcohol)
Doing business in Germany
Five Ways to Succeed
Demonstrate efficiency and punctuality
Be straightforward and direct
Do what you say you will do
Find out the rules and follow them
Respect the management hierarchy
Five Ways to Fail
Boast about your achievements
Talk for an hour in a presentation
Phone people in the evening about work
Let a colleague down once he or she believes
they can depend on you
Be patronizing to women
Five Ways to Fail
Be disorganized and ignore due process
Promise and fail to deliver
Do things without consultation
Go over the heads of line managers or reports
Be over-familiar with colleagues
Doing business in France
Five Ways to Succeed
Understand the free market v social contract
debate in France
Show appreciation of French culture
Make sure that French guests eat and drink
well
Maintain a degree of formality until you’re
invited to use first names
Be logical and consistent in negotiations, and
when you reach a decision, stick with it
Doing business in Italy
Five Ways to Succeed
Build good personal relationships and keep in
contact
Show appreciation of Italy and especially of
your partner’s region
Remember that the top man or woman makes
the decisions
Dress carefully and in coordinated fashion for
meetings: in Italy clothes do make the man (or
woman)
Name Italian products that you own of have
enjoyed
Sources: Glocal Partners, adopted from The World’s Business Cultures
Five Ways to Fail
Do it all in English – if you have no French,
apologize
Ignore the French intellectual approach
Swear and drink too much
Dig up the old clichés about Anglo-French
conflict
Decline lunch invitations and buy a sandwich to
eat at your desk
Five Ways to Fail
Criticize or belittle Italy and its economy
Remain solely on a business footing
Decline invitations to eat or drink with your
hosts
Wear jeans and trainers to the office on a
Friday
Make jokes involving the Pope