The Commisceo Global Blog - Perfect for Culture Vultures

Global Real Estate advisor Jones Lang LaSalle have carried out some research into the difficulties that can be encountered by western companies when they enter the Indian market. The result? Cultural differences are a major obstacle.

It is important to realize how strongly our emotions influence our thoughts and attitudes. They mirror in our behaviour and impact our productivity, performance and well-being both at work and at home. Even if we tried, we would not be able to cut them out and ban them from our workplace – and we certainly shouldn’t.

Due to its front line nature, bad customer service can severely damage the reputation of your business. It does not matter if you are working for a global player or in a cosy little sidewalk café in the countryside. Customer service matters, regardless of the size and location of your business.

Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by your workload and have no idea where to start and how to get organized? Does the term procrastination sound familiar to you? Can you relate to internal battles with work/life balance? You are not alone.

A number of American marketing and advertising companies have come together to start a new organization that aims to encourage cross-cultural marketing: a sign of changing directions and prioritizations within the marketing world perhaps?

Travel by its very nature means meeting and living with people from different cultures; and with cultures coming together there will always be differences in the way we do things. By way of highlighting this, the insurers Insure and Away have compiled a rather cool infographic of 50 Foreign Faux Pas to help keep you out of trouble!

Do you travel abroad for work? Want to make sure you're holding your fork correctly, saying the right things and giving a good impression? Then check out these ten apps for international etiquette.

By now, readers of this blog should be well aware of the fact that there are cultural differences between people. But where do these differences come from? Nature or nurture?

Cultural awareness is important in today's day and age. Businesses, government bodies, the third sector and public services all realise the need to understand and embrace cultural diversity at many levels. The military is no exception; as illustrated by the US Army, cultural awareness training is reaping rewards.

This July, the European Union will present new rules to encourage a Single European Payments Area. However, cultural and regulatory differences prove to pose challenges for the EU executives involved.

According to a new global study about workplace bullying, bullying bosses are more accepted in Anglo countries such as the U.S. or the U.K than they are in many other countries. The study was recently published in the Journal or Business Research and is co-authored by Nikos Bozionelos, who is a Professor at the Audencia Nantes School of Management. The research also revealed that the kindest bosses reside in Latin America.

E-commerce companies that wish to go international need to focus on cultural awareness as part of their global marketing and sales strategies. Not enough companies are applying localisation at every level, leaving gaps in their global goals.

Did you know Ramadan changes every year? It is not always on the same date like Christmas or New Year. That is because the Islamic calendar is lunar. Whenever Ramadan starts millions of working men and women from Morocco to Saudi Arabia to Indonesia will be fasting from dawn till dusk as of next week. Life changes for 30 days inevitably having an impact on business.

If you were planning on taking your business to the Nigerian market, you might want to prepare your staff for a trip to the African continent, as Nigerian merchants apparently favour real-life conversations over business talk via email.

Travelling to the Middle East, The Gulf or Arab world on business?

No matter where in the world you go for work knowing a few words or phrases in the local language can break down barriers, build relationships and smooth the way to business success.

During these past four days in Accra, we have often been asked what we make of Ghana – the culture, people, food, etc. It’s been an exciting and eye opening 4 days. Interestingly, one of the most surprising factors have been the traffic jams during rush hour and the extent to which these influence timeliness – we have experienced this ourselves on most days, so to avoid unnecessary frustrations, I have had to surrender to the traffic and simply go with the flow (and try not to inhale too many fumes!).

All week, in Ghana, we have reached out to a broad spectrum of successful  Ghanaian businessmen to help determine how they have managed to attain success.  Our meetings focused on hearing their experiences, their challenges, as well as their formula for breaking out of the crowd.

Based on my experiences of organising business meetings in Ghana, of which I wrote about in yesterday's blog post, I am going to elaborate on business etiquette in general, with the hope to give a few more insights, explanations and tips for doing business in Ghana.

According to culture awareness expert Andy Molinsky, 'global dexterity' is key to successful cross-cultural understanding. Awareness of culture and cross cultural differences are increasingly important in our global economy; Molinsky explains more in an interview with Forbes.

We focus a lot on this website about cultural differences in business; however for us it's all about culture and understanding that culture influences who we are and what we do. Only when you understand your own "self" and the cultural programming your have received, can you move towards understanding the "other".