UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, TAXILA

NAME: MUHAMMAD HASHIM

REGISTRATION NO: 19-SE-53

SUBMITTED TO: MISS FREEHA ZAHEER

DATE: FEB 2, 2021

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Long Report
Title: Report on Cultural Characteristics and Business Etiquettes of Italian People

Prepared For
Sir James Thomson
CEO of Soft Desk

Prepared By
Muhammad Hashim
Student
UET, Taxila

Date: Feb 2, 2021

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1. Letter of Transmitter

February 2, 2021

Sir James Thomson, CEO of Soft Desk

Basic Science Department, Oxford University

Respected Sir,

In this report I have discuss how the cultural characteristics affects the

business meeting in the foreign organizations and how its play important part in building the long-

term relationship. I have made this report on the basis of questionnaire and surveys conducted in

the Italy. It describes how people in Italy do business meeting their cultural characteristics.

Many special thanks and appreciation also to people who are directly or indirectly help me out in

developing this report.

This report will make the foreign business meeting more affective and fruitful. I hope you find this

report satisfactory.

Yours Obediently,

Muhammad Hashim

3rd Semester Students, UET Taxila.

Software Engineering Department.

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2. Executive Summary

For business purposes, a company has to do a business meeting with foreign organization. In the

past, many business meetings fails because they don’t know the cultural values of foreign

company. So, it important for any company to be aware of foreign cultural characteristics. So, we

are making this long report in which we are going to conduct surveys and questionnaire to find

cultural of Italy. After conducting surveys and questionnaire, we come to know that Italy people

are very strict towards time, they also pay attention to dress code, they like to do business with

people they trust. The main purpose of this report is to inform our company CEO’s about Italy’s

expectation when it comes to a variety of factors like greetings, formal business attire and topic of

conversation.
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3. Table of Contents

Letter of Transmitter………………………………………………………… 2

Executive Summary ………………………………………………………… 3

Table of Contents …………………………………………………………… 4

Introduction and Methods………………………………………………… 5

Finding and Discussion…………………………………………………… 6

Conclusion and De-Limitations……………………………………………… 6

Recommendation and Appendix…………………………………………… 7

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4. Introduction

Business meeting with foreign companies is not a new thing. For a good business meeting, both

of countries should be well aware of their cultural characteristics. Knowing cultural values will

paly an important part in understanding each other. To establish a successful business relationship,

it is important to develop personal relationship. Many businesses fail in the past because their

CEO’s were not well aware of their cultural characteristics.

The purpose of study is to determine how cultural

characteristics affects the business practices. We are study on this topic so that our company’s

CEO’s will be aware of cultural characteristics

5. Methods

To determine the cultural characteristics of Italy, we have conducted online questionnaire and

surveys. By conducting questionnaire and surveys, we have come to following conclusion that is

describe below:

The business culture of Italian is very strict towards time. We should not keep the waiting,

otherwise they would consider it their dis-respect.

The Italian people like to do business with people they know and trust. If you are doing

business with Italian for the first time, they would prefer face-to-face meeting.

Italian people pay attention to dress coat, as it represents our lifestyle, status and skills.

6. Discussion

By conducting surveys and questionnaire we have come to know that Italian people are very strict

towards time. We should not keep them waiting, if we do so, it means we are dis-respecting them.

Also, we come to know that Italian people like to do business with people they already know. If

they are doing business with a person for the first time, they we would prefer face-to-face meeting.
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When we meet with Italian people, they would hand shake and if we meet them several times, they

would develop a closer relation with us. Italian people first talk on a lighter subject before getting

towards the business matters. Also, first impression is very important in Italy, so we should pay

attention to dress code as well that will represent our status and skills.

7. Conclusion

We come to conclusion that:

Italy people are very strict towards time.

They also pay attention to dress code.

They like to do business with people they trust.

The main purpose of this report is to inform our company CEO’s about Italy’s expectation

when it comes to a variety of factors like greetings, formal business attire and topic of

conversation. So, company CEO’s should focus on these cultural characteristics for an

affective business meeting and long-term relationship.

8. De-Limitation

While performing surveys and questionnaire, we met such people who are not willing to answer

the questionnaire and performing the surveys. Some people don’t even ready to answer our

common question.

9. Recommendation
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In order to have good business meeting and long-term relationship with the foreign organization,

they should be:

On time for the business meeting

Take interest in their cultural characteristics described above in the report.

10.References

Article from: Santandertrade.com and Natapornthoheng

Link: https://santandertrade.com/en/portal/establish-overseas/italy/business-

practices#:~:text=Italian%20business%20culture%20is%20very,to%20have%20a%20pyramidal

%20hierarchy

Link: https://sites.google.com/site/natapornthoheng/exclusive-summary

11. Appendix

We have conducted a questionnaire in Italy. The sample is given below:

1. People in Italy prefer to do business with:

a) Known People

b) Unknown People

2. How people in Italy greet with one another?

3. Are people in Italy strict in time punctuality?

4. Do people in Italy like face-to-face meeting or by Email/Phone-Calls?