According to an article in the Economist, “From guard shack to global giant“, when Lenovo acquired IBM’s PC business Lenovo executives marvelled that “Americans like to talk; Chinese people like to listen. At first we wondered why they kept talking when they had nothing to say.” IBMers meanwhile couldn’t understand the Lenovo practice of publicly shaming those who came late to meetings.

At first reading this looks like a great example of culture clash, an ongoing issue for global business. And it is.

In spite of the rapid expansion of globalization over the last years and the increasing interaction of people around the world, so many are still caught unable to break out of their cultural box. Cultural box, the box that shields you from having to think about the fact that there are other ways of doing things and other beliefs that are just as valid as yours are.  And in some or many cases, are even more successful than yours are.

I travel to Africa quite a bit from my base in Birchrunville Pennsylvania USA. Over the years I have also spent large amounts of time in Latin America, Asia, and Europe. I continually get asked how I can go to some of the places I visit. This is almost always followed by a story about some personal disaster on their lone international trip or even when they happened to run into someone from a foreign country right in their home town. The bad thing about this is it reminds me how insular people are. The good thing about this is that it gives me a chance to discuss cultural awareness.

Cultural awareness: the ability to keep your mouth shut and your eyes open and notice what other people do and how they act. And then work to act and talk appropriately with respect for the culture you find yourself in. The hardest part is suspending your habits and being comfortable with difference. It’s really all I do and why I am accepted so well in so many diverse places and cultures.

Now back to “at first reading”. After noticing the cultural clash issue in the comments above, I thought about what the comments actually say. “Americans like to talk even when they have nothing to say while Chinese like to listen” and “we call out those who come late and keep others waiting.”

On further reflection I realized that captured in these two ideas are two keys to success. Listen when you have nothing to say and respect others. The clearest example of the bad things that happen when you violate these two keys to success comes in Washington these days. Continual talking with nothing to say and not even an attempt at respect for others. No wonder we’re falling off yet another cliff and dragging the world behind us.

Who among you wants to emulate those in Washington as the way you approach building something great?

Commenting area

  1. Dear Abby:

    I was in the investment banking business in the late 1980s, back when the Japanese had all the money (hard as that now is to remember or believe). I had a steady stream of bankers from Nomura, Dai Ichi Kangyo, Sumitomo, etc., etc., come through my office to tell me they wanted my firm to show them the companies we were helping sell, so they could show said companies to their rolling-in-cash clients to buy. Part of the pitch from every one of these guys (yes, all guys) was that it in Japan, acquisitions were negotiated privately and quietly, and that would be terribly embarrassing for a Japanese company to engage in something as unseemly as a bidding process. I’m sure this was an honest and pure expression of a cultural norm, but it sure struck my Yankee ears as code for “We got us lots of your money, and if you want to see it, you’re going to have to give us an exclusive on any company you’re trying to sell.” The fifteenth time I heard that pitch, I looked the poor Nomura guy in the eye and said, “Well, you’re in America now. We auction companies here. If the company is public, the law pretty much requires it, and even if the company is private, it’s just what we do. So if your clients want to buy businesses here, they’re just gonna have to get over it. I’d encourage you to go home and tell them that.”

    Was I culturally insensitive?

Comments are now closed for this article.