The second in an eight-part series of challenges facing Canada’s foreign trade: Dealing with cultural differences
It is the world’s unspoken language, and businesses that fail to listen for it will struggle, without understanding why. Cultural difference adds an extra layer of complexity to doing business internationally. Three key areas involve attitudes to time, relationships and directness in communication. One of the challenges Canadian business faces as it competes on the world stage is to make sense of these hidden or unspoken attitudes and to weave their new understanding into their business practices.
Georges Brotman, who was born in France, created and runs TTI Transculture Training International Consulting, which coaches businesses on how to deal with cultural differences they may encounter abroad. Carla Kearns, a dual citizen of Canada and the United States, is the owner and founder of TLI – The Mandarin School in Toronto, which provides language and intercultural training for business.
Are Canadians as worldly, as comfortable in the world, as we like to think?
Ms. Kearns: A lot of executives fear what they don’t know. They’re already disoriented when they go to another country. We’re very comfortable doing business with the United States. When we go to a country that is so different, like China, India or Russia, where the values are so different, it’s shocking.
Companies tend to look at the hard things. They invest time in legal, in financial, in governance. These are all truly important. Often the cultural differences initially get dismissed. “Oh, it’s the soft skills, how difficult can it be? We’re Canadian, we have a great deal of intercultural experience, we’re multicultural.”
What are these shocking differences that business should be most aware of?
Ms. Kearns: In my experience working with China, time is the biggest gap. We have a very short perspective on time. Our concept is “time is precious, time is money, don’t waste my time.” We have an unspoken agreement to do things as quickly as possible so we can get out and do something else. China is different. Even though China has been advancing at a rapid pace, individually people have a very different concept of time. It’s much longer. It stems from it being a very old culture. People are used to things taking time and resolving themselves in time.
How exactly does not making enough time hurt business?
Ms. Kearns: Where it becomes tricky is where a Canadian company goes to negotiate. We want to rush things. They don’t want to do that in China.
Is being in a rush so wrong?
Ms. Kearns: Chinese companies know this about Canadian and American companies; they know this short-term perspective is going to drive the board or executive team at these companies to say “if you don’t come back with a contract signed your trip is a failure.” They know there is corporate pressure that can be used as a negotiating tool. The Chinese counterpart can draw out negotiations.
Mr. Brotman: There’s a saying that time needs time. Here in North America we’re much more fact-, figures-, conclusion-based, versus relationship-based. In countries like China and Brazil, you need to establish a relationship first before they even want to do business with you. That’s why doing business in China takes a long time. I call it the rule of two. If you’re doing business outside of the U.S. it’s going to take you twice as long, twice as much in terms of budget; you’re going to have to put in twice the effort that you would in North America.
So time is necessary to develop the relationship.
Ms. Kearns: It takes face time. Those personal relationships are integral. If you go to China and schedule your trip so you’ve got back-to-back meetings all day and go back to your hotel and you’re e-mailing your corporate office and you go for five days and head back so you can get the weekend, you will never be successful.
