International Etiquettes – Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands

Typing this blog sitting in the business lounge at Zurich airport. Every time I take a trip outside the US, it reminds me of how different our lives are compared to the rest of the world. As you very well know, each country has its own flavor of culture, tradition, belief systems and method of operation. There’s a bunch of things that we almost take for granted within the US. Those things do turn out to be a BIG DEAL in the rest of the world. This fact becomes apparent when I have to pay for the each packet of ketchup with my food at Burger King in Switzerland! Or when I order coffee anywhere in Europe and I only get 1/4th the size of coffee at my (dearest) Starbucks – and that too after paying more money. Further, some of explicit images and videos displayed in very public places really amaze the {blip} out of me. And when we complain, we get labeled as the Arrogant Americans!!! Go figure ;-)

Anyways, this blog is not about the personal or social difference between us and the rest of the world, it is more to do with - How to deal with it in the best way possible when you go out of the country to do business. Be it sales or procurement, the rest of the world works very differently than the US. Fortunately, my work has taken me to Bolivia, France, Germany, India, Japan, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. And in my line of work, I have interfaced with folks from various other countries. And I must say, each of these countries have a different flavor of dealing with business. One small example is - Its very important to exchange business cards in Japan and India. Your business card provides a measure of your place in the pecking order. Exchanging the business cards is a very elaborate and important process and should be taken seriously. There are several websites and books such as “Kiss, Bow, Or Shake Hands” that offer a great deal of help in understading details of statistics and methods of doing business in each country. Following are a few generic “must do” from me – 

1. Always dress formal. Informal dressing is catching up around the world but when traveling oversees, always dress formal. 
2. Never take anyone for granted – never assume an importance from one’s appearances. The person may look fairly ordinary but may hold a very important position. Respect all – treat everyone, as you want treated yourself.
3. Never discuss political environment or political ideas in a different country. You just never know, what political ideology that they may be holding or be sensitive to; and may end up jeopardizing your deal. 
4. Never criticize a country in front their countryman. Everyone is proud of their country and do not wish to hear about things that are not working. Praise positives and ignore the negatives. 
5. Never conduct business in your language thinking that the other side does not understand. People are multi-linguals and do put an air of not understanding your English at all but they just may have a team member there listening to your sidebar. Also, one may use the lack of understanding of ones language as a pretense to think things over. 
6. As far as greeting goes, just raise hand and say Good Morning and Good Evenings. Do not go too much into the cultural intrigues and start kissing an Arab for greeting and all. 
7. Read about the country before you go – be aware of the sensitivities to the historical facts – don’t ask the Germans how the environment was under Adolf Hitler and all. And just do not give a Thumbs Up sign anywhere in the Arab world. 
8. In a lot of cultures, saving face means a world. So, folks may appear distant in a meeting.. but this may just mean that that some cultures may put a face on the meeting that will do all the talking; but that does not mean that others are not listening or understanding. 

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