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Digg it UP - Cultural Sensitivity in Business
The misconception stall is particularly harmful because some of your best people already realize that you are operating on faulty assumptions. Since actions based on those assumptions are folly, these key employees are losing faith in the future of the organization and the quality of its leadership. Soon, you may find recovery from your mistakes is made more difficult as your most talented people seek other opportunities.MISCONCEPTION: The Danger of False Assumptions AboundsHow is a misconception stall different from a disbelief stall? A disbelief stall is based on something that was once true, but no longer is. A misconception stall is based on a belief that was never true. Here are some examples of harmful misconceptions:• The future can be accurately forecast.• Competitors will stand still while we make rapid progress.• Agreement among colleagues mea
Culture
Culture comes in many shapes and sizes. It includes areas such as politics, history, faith, mentality, behaviour and lifestyle. The following examples demonstrate how a lack of cultural sensitivity led to failure.
* When colouring in 800,000 pixels on a map of India, Microsoft coloured eight of them a different shade of green to represent the disputed Kashmiri territory. The difference in greens meant Kashmir was show
Hello readerFirst off i am going to be honest or keep it real as some people like to call it. If you want to make a lot of money fast online then your going to have to be dedicated. If you can't be dedicated, your better off buying lottery tickets that's the truth, The programs shown to you at my site will help you to make a lot of money fast from the ground up if you can be dedicated to the teachings offered. If your plan of getting rich quick is to pay some guy 50 bucks to show you his secrets and sit back and wait for the money then your wrong. Once you give up your money your at the mercy of the person you gave your money too especially online. really you can learn how to make money online without the help of anyone, the problem with that is it will cost you alot of money and alot of time. Doing things together is always the best way but it's not the only way. Knowledge is pow
There are some observers that claim this new found intimacy has lead to a greater understanding of ‘the other’ and as a result our cultural differences are in fact diminishing. However, in reality the opposite is true. As we come together our cultural differences become accentuated as we start to realise that the rest of the world is not reading from the same book. One area where this is now being felt is in business.
Very few businesses can escape the need to at some point in time deal with foreign colleagues, clients or customers. Business is international and if an organisation wants to develop and grow it needs to harness the potential an international stage offers. Twenty years ago British, European and American organisations doing business abroad had very little competition due to the lack of rival industrialised nations. Back then it was easy to do business ‘our way’. Today some of the world’s largest economies include Japan, China, Mexico, Brazil, India and Korea. As a result there has been a small shift from ‘our way’ to ‘let’s try and understand your way’. Why? Because western organisations are feeling the impact a lack of cultural sensitivity can and does have upon business performance.
Many organisations are now investing heavily in providing staff with language lessons in order to be able to crack foreign markets as well as providing cultural sensitivity training to address issues such as etiquette, protocol, communication styles and negotiation approaches. In a competitive world such businesses appreciate that greater cultural sensitivity will assist them in forging longer and more prosperous relationships. Yet progress is slow. Unfortunately a subconscious sense of cultural superiority still seems to reign; one that assumes the rest of the world does business like us and if they don’t then they should.
The world’s inhabitants however come from many faiths, cultures, world views and experiences which makes such an assumption futile. We are all different and as a result doing business across borders (whether political, religious, cultural or linguistic) requires cultural sensitivity, meaning a sense of empathy, flexibility and creativity informed by cultural knowledge. As with most things in life, business has learnt the hard way.
To illustrate how these lessons have and are still being learnt we will look at some examples where a lack of cultural sensitivity has let a company, individual or product down. For the sake of brevity these have been summed up in two simple categories: culture and language.
Culture
Culture comes in many shapes and sizes. It includes areas such as politics, history, faith, mentality, behaviour and lifestyle. The following examples demonstrate how a lack of cultural sensitivity led to failure.
* When colouring in 800,000 pixels on a map of India, Microsoft coloured eight of them a different shade of green to represent the disputed Kashmiri territory. The difference in greens meant Kashmir was shown
How do you earn a living folks? Tell me, do you often find yourself overflowing with too much dough and hardly ever stressed about paying monthly expenses especially that heating bill? For sure if this sounds familiar to you, then perhaps you're certainly not amongst the majority. The truth is the majority of the middle class residents live paycheck by paycheck. Well, for the most part anyway. It’s not as though we are running out to dole out 50 grand on a new sports car like it's no big thing. This may be one of the major reasons why some of us go all-out to find other money sources.We all seek that sense of security irrespective if it’s a money making program or a second job of some sort. In fact there are several alternative income vehicles and money making programs at our very fingertips. With the help of the World-Wide-Web, indeed anyone can find and take adv
Very few businesses can escape the need to at some point in time deal with foreign colleagues, clients or customers. Business is international and if an organisation wants to develop and grow it needs to harness the potential an international stage offers. Twenty years ago British, European and American organisations doing business abroad had very little competition due to the lack of rival industrialised nations. Back then it was easy to do business ‘our way’. Today some of the world’s largest economies include Japan, China, Mexico, Brazil, India and Korea. As a result there has been a small shift from ‘our way’ to ‘let’s try and understand your way’. Why? Because western organisations are feeling the impact a lack of cultural sensitivity can and does have upon business performance.
Many organisations are now investing heavily in providing staff with language lessons in order to be able to crack foreign markets as well as providing cultural sensitivity training to address issues such as etiquette, protocol, communication styles and negotiation approaches. In a competitive world such businesses appreciate that greater cultural sensitivity will assist them in forging longer and more prosperous relationships. Yet progress is slow. Unfortunately a subconscious sense of cultural superiority still seems to reign; one that assumes the rest of the world does business like us and if they don’t then they should.
The world’s inhabitants however come from many faiths, cultures, world views and experiences which makes such an assumption futile. We are all different and as a result doing business across borders (whether political, religious, cultural or linguistic) requires cultural sensitivity, meaning a sense of empathy, flexibility and creativity informed by cultural knowledge. As with most things in life, business has learnt the hard way.
To illustrate how these lessons have and are still being learnt we will look at some examples where a lack of cultural sensitivity has let a company, individual or product down. For the sake of brevity these have been summed up in two simple categories: culture and language.
Culture
Culture comes in many shapes and sizes. It includes areas such as politics, history, faith, mentality, behaviour and lifestyle. The following examples demonstrate how a lack of cultural sensitivity led to failure.
* When colouring in 800,000 pixels on a map of India, Microsoft coloured eight of them a different shade of green to represent the disputed Kashmiri territory. The difference in greens meant Kashmir was show
I've come to the conclusion that to be successful - really successful - you've got to love what you do.Not like it okay. Not do it because you know how. Not do it because you've invested so much time and energy into it. I mean LOVE it! The kind of love that makes you want to get up in the morning and get going. Because your work has meaning, significance, and fulfillment. If these aren't words that describe what you do day-in and day-out, then perhaps this year is the time to make a change, to step up to your big, bodacious moment - or BoMo as I call it.How satisfied are you with your career on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being extremely satisfied?That's the question I kept asking myself during my ten and a half years at AOL during the 1990s. Year after year my answer was a 7, 8, or higher. The vast majority of time I felt passionate about what I was doing; I
Many organisations are now investing heavily in providing staff with language lessons in order to be able to crack foreign markets as well as providing cultural sensitivity training to address issues such as etiquette, protocol, communication styles and negotiation approaches. In a competitive world such businesses appreciate that greater cultural sensitivity will assist them in forging longer and more prosperous relationships. Yet progress is slow. Unfortunately a subconscious sense of cultural superiority still seems to reign; one that assumes the rest of the world does business like us and if they don’t then they should.
The world’s inhabitants however come from many faiths, cultures, world views and experiences which makes such an assumption futile. We are all different and as a result doing business across borders (whether political, religious, cultural or linguistic) requires cultural sensitivity, meaning a sense of empathy, flexibility and creativity informed by cultural knowledge. As with most things in life, business has learnt the hard way.
To illustrate how these lessons have and are still being learnt we will look at some examples where a lack of cultural sensitivity has let a company, individual or product down. For the sake of brevity these have been summed up in two simple categories: culture and language.
Culture
Culture comes in many shapes and sizes. It includes areas such as politics, history, faith, mentality, behaviour and lifestyle. The following examples demonstrate how a lack of cultural sensitivity led to failure.
* When colouring in 800,000 pixels on a map of India, Microsoft coloured eight of them a different shade of green to represent the disputed Kashmiri territory. The difference in greens meant Kashmir was show
In today’s business world, the pressure for financial performance has created a supercharged atmosphere in which the only goal seems to be to make as much cash as fast as possible. Few industries have changed under this pressure as much as the advertising industry.Industry professionals are caught in a crossfire between clients who demand ever increasing return on investment (which generally means lower price) and their own managers who seek ever escalating revenues. Today fewer people are doing more work than ever before and earning less. The resulting pressure has taken a lot of the fun out of a business that was traditionally focused on delivering big ideas and powerful solutions.The problem has been exacerbated over the last fifteen years as the ad agency business has gone public. Estimates vary, yet most agree that over ? of the U.S. advertising billings roll up to eig
The world’s inhabitants however come from many faiths, cultures, world views and experiences which makes such an assumption futile. We are all different and as a result doing business across borders (whether political, religious, cultural or linguistic) requires cultural sensitivity, meaning a sense of empathy, flexibility and creativity informed by cultural knowledge. As with most things in life, business has learnt the hard way.
To illustrate how these lessons have and are still being learnt we will look at some examples where a lack of cultural sensitivity has let a company, individual or product down. For the sake of brevity these have been summed up in two simple categories: culture and language.
Culture
Culture comes in many shapes and sizes. It includes areas such as politics, history, faith, mentality, behaviour and lifestyle. The following examples demonstrate how a lack of cultural sensitivity led to failure.
* When colouring in 800,000 pixels on a map of India, Microsoft coloured eight of them a different shade of green to represent the disputed Kashmiri territory. The difference in greens meant Kashmir was show
Accounts Receivable Factoring is a means to meet the requirements of companies that are in urgent need of cash. Highly useful to the companies, this process of Accounts Receivable Funding refers to the process of selling of invoices and other Receivables by the company to a funding company. The funding company purchases these Receivables at a discount from the seller company. The seller company then gets the required cash that is required to run the business. Added advantages are that the seller company can then focus on the business without bothering with collecting the cash, because this becomes the responsibility of the financing company.As a company raising funds through Accounts Receivable Funding, you have the option of managing the Accounts Receivable sales yourself, or outsourcing it to a company who specializes in providing Accounts Receivable Funding services. In fact, t
Culture
Culture comes in many shapes and sizes. It includes areas such as politics, history, faith, mentality, behaviour and lifestyle. The following examples demonstrate how a lack of cultural sensitivity led to failure.
* When colouring in 800,000 pixels on a map of India, Microsoft coloured eight of them a different shade of green to represent the disputed Kashmiri territory. The difference in greens meant Kashmir was shown as non-Indian, and the product was promptly banned in India. Microsoft was left to recall all 200,000 copies of the offending Windows 95 operating system software to try and heal the diplomatic wounds. It cost them millions.
*The fast food giant McDonald’s spent thousands on a new TV ad to target the Chinese consumer. The ad showed a Chinese man kneeling before a McDonald’s vendor and begging him to accept his expired discount coupon. The ad was pulled due to a lack of cultural sensitivity on McDonald’s behalf. The ad caused uproar over the fact that begging is considered a shameful act in Chinese culture.
* A nice example of how pictures don’t translate well across cultures is the time staff at the African port of Stevadores saw the ‘internationally recognised’ symbol for “fragile” (i.e. broken wine glass) and presumed it was a box of broken glass. Rather than waste space they threw all the boxes into the sea.
* When the US firm Gerber started selling baby food in Africa they used the same packaging as in the US, i.e. with a picture of a baby on the label. Sales flopped and they soon realised that in Africa companies typically place pictures of contents on their labels.
* Pepsodent tried to sell its toothpaste in South East Asia by emphasizing that it "whitens your teeth." They found out that the local natives chew betel nuts to blacken their teeth which they find attractive.
* The film “Hollywood Buddha” showed a complete lack of cultural sensitivity by causing outrage and protest on the streets of Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Burma when the designer of the film’s poster decided to show the lead actor sitting on the Buddha’s head, an act of clear degradation against something holy.
* The concept of Big Brother was somehow taken to the Middle East. The show was pulled of the air after its first few episodes due to public protests and pressure from religious bodies stating the show’s mixed sex format was against Islamic principles.
* A golf ball manufacturing company packaged golf balls in packs of four for convenient purchase in Japan. Unfortunately, the number 4 is equivalent to the number 13 due it sounding like the word "death". The company had to repackage the product.
Language
The business world is littered with poor translations that have caused great embarrassment to their perpetrators due to their lack of cultural sensitivity. The following are some of the choicest examples.
* IKEA once tried to sell a workbench called FARTFULL - not a hugely popular product for obvious reasons.
* Both Clairol and the Irish alcoholic drink Irish Mist did not properly consider the German language when
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