Global Smarts: The Art of Communicating and Deal Making Anywhere in the World - Brief Article

HR Magazine, March, 2001

By Sheida Hodge

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000

246 pages, List Price: $27.95

ISBN: 0-471-38246-9

Securing a global competitive advantage is the greatest challenge facing American business today. The premise of this book is that to maximize their time and resources in this global marketplace, organizations must be "cross-culturally competent."

Author Sheida Hodge is president of Professional Training Worldwide, a management consulting and training organization specializing in cross-cultural business relations. She formerly was manager of international business development for General Electric Co.

Hodge takes a broad view of cultural differences and demonstrates how companies develop a world-based perspective by considering "hard factors"--such as economic conditions, currency fluctuations and political stability--as well as "soft factors" or cultural differences. These include how people relate to each other as individuals, how they communicate, how they build trust and credibility, how they work together and make decisions, what motivates them, how they relate to authority and how they maintain their sense of identity.

Throughout the book, vignettes present the personal experiences of individuals working outside the United States. The author includes direct, useful advice on handling the issues covered in each chapter.

The book says that global business once resembled a "tennis match," in which companies conducted a one-on-one game with subsidiaries or partners in other countries. Today's global environment, however, is more like a "team contact sport" in which executives and managers travel to many countries and work with an increasingly multinational workforce. Executives need to learn how to be comfortable with a wide variety of cultures and attitudes and to be able to identify potential trouble spots.

Hodge covers many aspects of working internationally: culture as the accumulation of life experiences, cultural symbols and values, key cultural contrasts for Americans traveling abroad, the social setting of international business, the basics of international business etiquette, and criteria for choosing the best persons for overseas assignments.

The author says that "a simple recipe" can be used to build credibility internationally, between individuals and between corporations and their customers:

* Communicate your credentials and your facts up front; back them up with written documentation.

* Establish that your authority comes from the highest level.

* Be consistent; don't change your story in midstream.

* Show that you care about the other side and their special circumstances.