Doing Business Globally? Don't unless you can answer the following:

1. You are waiting in a queue at the bank in Italy for half an hour. You get to the bank teller, only to be sternly instructed to continue waiting while they serve someone who jumped the queue and walked straight up to the teller. How is this possible? [Check answer]
   
   To understand this behaviour better why not consider taking the following programmes: Working Across Cultures; Working with the Italians.
    
2. At a meeting in Paris your French counterparts are picking our proposal apart, nit-picking every detail, questioning every fact. Yet when you want information from them, they always seem to talk in circles and never get to the point. What is all this about? [Check answer]
   
   To understand this behaviour better why not consider taking the following programmes: Managing International Meetings; Working with the French
    
3. What's really going on at the meeting? Each of these statements are true in one European country; try to guess what they are:
   1. A meeting without a concrete result is a failure.
   2. To question another participant's proposal is to question the competence of the person who put it forward.
   3. Any process of open decision-making is an illusion. The purpose of the meeting is for decision-makers to evaluate the mood of others, to sense supporters and to test the waters.
   4. The meeting is a forum for the dynamic expression of strong personal opinions, preferably contrary to everyone else's.
   5. Meetings are for briefing and discussion. They are not considered an appropriate forum for decision-making or delegation, nor is a clear, decisive result anticipated.

   [Check answers]
   
   To understand this behaviour better why not consider taking the following programmes: Managing International Meetings; Presenting Internationally.
    

4. You have recently been assigned to Tokyo and are running a Japanese team. You decide to promote one of the team, Daisuke, to section chief. Although he is a little young for the post at 26, he is such a fine worker that you feel that it is the best possible internal appointment you can make. You decide to make your announcement at the next team meeting. To your surprise, however, both Daisuke and the team are less than enthusiastic about the news. Worse still, since the appointment the group's productivity has fallen off sharply. What could be wrong? [Check answer]
   
   To understand this behaviour better why not consider taking the following programmes: Teamworking Across Cultures; Working with the Japanese.
    
5. Whenever you have called Carlos in Buenos Aires and inquired about the status of the project, he has always been positive and reassuring. However, you have recently learnt that there are some very real problems and a major deadline may not be met. You now wonder to yourself why Carlos is being so intentionally misleading? [Check answer]
   
   To understand this behaviour better why not consider taking the following programmes: Teamworking Across Cultures; Working with Latin America.
    
6. At a first project meeting with joint-venture partners in Milan your Italian colleagues seemed at first very eager to hear your proposal. However, as you attempted to answer what was a flurry of many questions all at once, certain individuals would leave the room, others would invite you to go with them for some coffee whilst others would make phone calls and discuss things among themselves. By the end of the meeting, nothing was actually decided. How do you deal with all this? [Check answer]
   
   To understand this behaviour better why not consider taking the following programmes: Managing International Meetings; Working with the Italians.
    
7. In a negotiation meeting in Tokyo you have waited in silence for Hanada-san's response to your offer. The silence becomes very uncomfortable and in frustration you offer a 20% reduction in price. Hanada-san closes his eyes and makes a deep sucking sound through his teeth. This is followed by more silence. What do you do? [Check answer]
   
   To understand this behaviour better why not consider taking the following programmes: Negotiating Across Cultures; Working with the Japanese.
    
8. You are in Paris for an important meeting. The morning seems to go reasonably well and at lunchtime your French hosts take you to a good restaurant which is clearly a popular choice for business people. Eager to continue the important business discussion of the morning, you raise a question over lunch about a point previously debated. Despite their earlier passion, now the French all but disregard your comment. What's going on? [Check answer]
   
   To understand this behaviour better why not consider taking the following programmes: Working Across Cultures; Working with the French.
    
9. You and three other colleagues arrive in Beijing for a series of negotiations. The following morning the four of you enter the meeting room and find seventeen Chinese counterparts waiting silently there for you. They all seem to be dressed very similarly but only a small number of them actually speak during the meeting. Why do they need so many people present? [Check answer]
   
   To understand this behaviour better why not consider taking the following programmes: Negotiating Across Cultures; Working with the Chinese.
    
10. You are in Hamburg for an important meeting with your German distributor. Your newly promoted counterpart is Frau Stern. You are taken to lunch, and wanting to make a good impression, you hold open the door to the restaurant to allow Frau Stern to enter before you. However, as she enters she laughs a little, while the maitre d' frowns at you. What did you do wrong? [Check answer]
    
    To understand this behaviour better why not consider taking the following programmes: Working Across Cultures; Working with the Germans.
     
11. You and your team have arrived to negotiate an important deal in Caracas, Venezuela. The head of the Venezuelan team, whom you had met in New York last month briefly, comes straight up to you and startles you by embracing you in front of your entire team. He then stands so close to you and touches you all the time while speaking to you. You feel more and more uncomfortable and simply want the meeting to end. What's going on? [Check answer]
    
    To understand this behaviour better why not consider taking the following programmes: Working Across Cultures; Working with Latin America.
     
12. You have been assigned to Greece to work in one of the fast-developing overseas branches of an American-based company at which you were considered a high-potential young manager. After about a month, you began to be disturbed by the topics covered during informal conversations with your Greek colleagues during lunch breaks and during after-hours social activities. Greek colleagues ask about your salary, your religious and political preferences, whether or not you had a lady friend, and whether you'd like to meet some nice Greek women. You have tried to be as honest as possible in your responses. On learning that you had a good salary, it was not long before colleagues asked you for loans. Finally, your irritation at the totality of all these personal inquiries into your private life becomes visible to your Greek colleagues. Seeing this, they start to keep their distance from you. What's going on? [Check answer]
    
    To understand this behaviour better why not consider taking the following programmes: Working Across Cultures; Working with the Greeks.