Cultural Differences & Cultural Diversity in International Business

About This Week's Guest Henrik Jeppesen This must be the shortest introduction ever for a podcast guest: Henrik Jeppesen visited every country in the world just before his 28th birthday. That's it! Better listen to the interview to learn all about it... Interview Links Links that are mentioned in this episode: * Website: https://beyondeverycountry.com * Facebook: https://facebook.com/beyondeverycountry * Instagram: https://instagram.com/beyondeverycountry Build Your Cultural Competence In the Culture Matters podcast, we interview real people with real stories. Every other week there is a guest with broad international experience and lots of cultural insights. I interview real people with real stories. To subscribe directly using iTunes or Stitcher, Click here, or here (or click any of the images below). How To Get In Touch With Culture Matters I'd love for you to get in touch. There are a couple of ways you can do this: * Via this website: Just use the “Ask Your Question” tab on the right of the screen and leave a voicemail * Email me at chris.smit@culturematters.com * Send me a Tweet: @chrissmit Finally Thank you so much for taking the time to read this far, and to listen to my Podcast. I hope you will be back for the next episode of the Culture Matters Podcast!

About This Week's Guest Stephan Frost This is the first time that we have a guest who has been on the podcast before. In this podcast, we continue our discussion on Inclusive Management. What it is and what you can do. Stephen Frost is Head of Diversity and Inclusion for KPMG UK. He served as Head of Diversity and Inclusion for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games from 2007-2012. He was educated as a Hertford College Scholar at Oxford University and a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University. He also teaches inclusive leadership at Harvard Business School and an extended class at Sciences Po in Paris. He advises several organizations and governments worldwide and is the author of the book The Inclusion Imperative. His tips to become more culturally competent are: * Know and understand yourself. Think about your own "in-group"; your friends and family. To whom do you reach out to and (possibly more important), to whom do you not reach out to (because you don't want to or it would make you feel uncomfortable). * Think about your leadership style. Are you expecting people to adapt to you, or are you willing to adapt to them? This attitude will have a great influence on your leadership style. * Deliver: what have you done in the past? What have you done in the past to make this a better, more interesting place? Ideally, you let someone else share this while you take a back seat and listen to how they see what you've done. Interview Links Links that are mentioned in this episode: * Stephen's latest book: "Inclusive Talent Management" * Email: stephen@frostincluded.com Build Your Cultural Competence In the Culture Matters podcast, we interview real people with real stories. Every other week there is a guest with broad international experience and lots of cultural insights. I interview real people with real stories. To subscribe directly using iTunes or Stitcher, Click here, or here (or click any of the images below). How To Get In Touch With Culture Matters I'd love for you to get in touch. There are a couple of ways you can do this: * Via this website: Just use the “Ask Your Question” tab on the right of the screen and leave a voicemail * Email me at chris.smit@culturematters.com * Send me a Tweet: @chrissmit Finally Thank you so much for taking the time to read this far, and to listen to my Podcast. I hope you will be back for the next episode of the Culture Matters Podcast! You can read an article about Global talent sourcing here.

About This Week's Guest Audrey Mezas Audrey Mezas is the Dutch owner of Expat in Amsterdam. She is an Expat/Executive Personal Assistant to athletes, professors, families, international entrepreneurs and business executives. The difference between Audrey and say a relocation company is that she delivers "tailor-made personal" service for each of her clients and accompanying them almost everywhere they need to be. Audrey also trains teams in Executive Excellence and has moved 17 times and lived on four continents. Audrey is the "Expat in Amsterdam." Her tips to become more culturally competent are: * Get to know the locals; don't stay in your expat bubble. * Make sure everyone in your family has a hobby or a sport to do. It keeps you connected to other people which will help you integrate. * Don't wait too long to get started to get adjusted. Otherwise, it will get harder and harder to adjust later on. Interview Links Links that are mentioned in this episode: * Website: http://expatinamsterdam.com Build Your Cultural Competence In the Culture Matters podcast, we interview real people with real stories. Every other week there is a guest with broad international experience and lots of cultural insights. I interview real people with real stories. To subscribe directly using iTunes or Stitcher, Click here, or here (or click any of the images below). How To Get In Touch With Culture Matters I'd love for you to get in touch. There are a couple of ways you can do this: * Via this website: Just use the “Ask Your Question” tab on the right of the screen and leave a voicemail * Email me at chris.smit@culturematters.com * Send me a Tweet: @chrissmit Finally Thank you so much for taking the time to read this far, and to listen to my Podcast. I hope you will be back for the next episode of the Culture Matters Podcast!

About This Week's Guest Jeri Weber Jeri Weber, a US American lawyer knows about the demands of the legal profession and working with other cultures. She spent the first 18
 years of life viewing the world through her US perspective. Longer periods living in Indonesia, China, the Netherlands, Belgium, and
 Germany broadened her perspective and sensitized her to other
 cultures. She combined her background in the law with her experience adapting across cultures and now assists legal professionals to better serve their global clients by designing solutions on specific intercultural issues and moderating the building of intercultural teams. Her mission is to give them tools to negotiate more successfully across cultures. Her tips to become more culturally competent are: * Do not assume (ass-U-me) that people know about your culture or that you know about their culture. When in doubt ask. Asking never hurts. * Really listen to what the others are saying, but also to what they're not saying. In other words, keep your ears and eyes really open and dig a bit deeper by asking a second question after your first question on the same topic. * Be open to whatever is coming. Obeserve and try not to judge. Interview Links Links that are mentioned in this episode: * Email: info@culturalxing.com * LinkedIn: https://de.linkedin.com/in/jeri-weber-b173a150 Build Your Cultural Competence In the Culture Matters podcast, we interview real people with real stories. Every other week there is a guest with broad international experience and lots of cultural insights. I interview real people with real stories. To subscribe directly using iTunes or Stitcher, Click here, or here (or click any of the images below). How To Get In Touch With Culture Matters I'd love for you to get in touch. There are a couple of ways you can do this: * Via this website: Just use the “Ask Your Question” tab on the right of the screen and leave a voicemail * Email me at chris.smit@culturematters.com * Send me a Tweet: @chrissmit Finally Thank you so much for taking the time to read this far, and to listen to my Podcast. I hope you will be back for the next episode of the Culture Matters Podcast!

About This Week's Guest Bart van Loon After volunteering for the United Nations in the aftermath of the Kashmir Earthquake in 2005, Bart realized the potential of the South Asian labor market in Europe. Ever since he is building long lasting professional relationships between companies and employees spanning the globe. His tips to become more culturally competent are: * Always realize that when it comes to communication that this is a shared responsibility. It is a 50% sender and a 50% receiver thing. * Don't stereotype when you're dealing with individuals. When you're dealing with one person, you're not dealing with the "average" person from that culture. So be careful with this. * Have patience when you're dealing with someone from another culture. Take for instance the English language (or for that matter any language that two people share to communicate): The first time a Brit will speak to someone from Pakistan, (s)he might face some difficulty in understanding. But give it some time and before you know it you won't even hear the differences in accents. Interview Links Links that are mentioned in this episode: * Bart's personal website: http://bbbart.be * Email: bart@zeropoint.hr Build Your Cultural Competence In the Culture Matters podcast, we interview real people with real stories. Every other week there is a guest with broad international experience and lots of cultural insights. I interview real people with real stories. To subscribe directly using iTunes or Stitcher, Click here, or here (or click any of the images below). How To Get In Touch With Culture Matters I'd love for you to get in touch. There are a couple of ways you can do this: * Via this website: Just use the “Ask Your Question” tab on the right of the screen and leave a voicemail * Email me at chris.smit@culturematters.com * Send me a Tweet: @chrissmit Finally Thank you so much for taking the time to read this far, and to listen to my Podcast. I hope you will be back for the next episode of the Culture Matters Podcast!

About This Week's Guest Hugo Messer Hugo Messer has been building and managing teams around the world for over 10 years. His passion is to enable people that are spread across cultures, geography and time zones to cooperate. Whether it’s offshoring or nearshoring, he knows what it takes to make a global collaboration work. His 6 tips to become more culturally competent are: * Focus on creating one team or one partnership. Invest time in this and try to get away from an "us versus them feeling". * Take time to think about how you will work remotely. Do this before you actually start executing and working. * When you're developing software, use an iterative framework like Scrum. Make the process incremental. * You need people with empathy on location in order to find was to get across the cultural hurdles. * Use daily "standup" meetings. Get together (virtually) every day for 5 to 10 minutes in order to re-align where everyone is. This way you can truly build a remote virtual team. * It is crucial that everyone in the team is on the same page. They should all be aligned with each other. Interview Links Links that are mentioned in this episode: * To get all the ebooks that Hugo wrote: http://ekipa.co/ebooks * Email: hugo@ekipa.com * An earlier podcast with Lisette Sutherland on how to work with virtual teams Build Your Cultural Competence In the Culture Matters podcast, we interview real people with real stories. Every other week there is a guest with broad international experience and lots of cultural insights. I interview real people with real stories. To subscribe directly using iTunes or Stitcher, Click here, or here (or click any of the images below). How To Get In Touch With Culture Matters I'd love for you to get in touch. There are a couple of ways you can do this: * Via this website: Just use the “Ask Your Question” tab on the right of the screen and leave a voicemail * Email me at chris.smit@culturematters.com * Send me a Tweet: @chrissmit Finally Thank you so much for taking the time to read this far, and to listen to my Podcast. I hope you will be back for the next episode of the Culture Matters Podcast!

About This Week's Guest Jeroen Ketting Jeroen Ketting is a Dutch business advisor, author, and speaker who has helped hundreds of companies succeed in the challenging Russian market. His thought leadership and contributions to the public debate have made him a sought-after expert on Russia for both governments and media. His thought leadership and contributions to the public debate have made him a sought-after expert on Russia for both governments and media.Ketting's extensive Russian network, experience and practical advice are invaluable for companies looking to do business in Russia Ketting's extensive Russian network, experience and practical advice are invaluable for companies looking to do business in Russia. His 3 (plus a bonus) tips to become more culturally competent are: * Only deal with Russia if you enjoy dealing with Russians in Russia. Look at the country and it's people as a glass being half full, rather than half empty. * You'll be more effective and efficient if you leave your own viewpoints behind, but with that, you don't have to become Russian (you can't and you won't). You play soccer/football with soccer/football rules. You don't play soccer/football with rugby rules. Play "the game" like the game should be played in the country that you're playing it. * Make sure you get introduced to Russia. Business cards alone won't do it. Understand what you're getting yourself into. Follow a course, get a workshop, get some coaching, read a book. Start before you're even in Russia with this. * (Bonus) Try to understand and accept (the Russians); don't be judgemental. Interview Links Links that are mentioned in this episode: * Simply Google "Ketting Russia" This will bring you the website: http://www.thelighthousegroup.ru/gb/ * Otherwise, get in touch with me and I will give you the details of Jeroen. Build Your Cultural Competence In the Culture Matters podcast, we interview real people with real stories. Every other week there is a guest with broad international experience and lots of cultural insights. I interview real people with real stories. To subscribe directly using iTunes or Stitcher, Click here, or here (or click any of the images below). How To Get In Touch With Culture Matters I'd love for you to get in touch. There are a couple of ways you can do this: * Via this website: Just use the “Ask Your Question” tab on the right of the screen and leave a voicemail * Email me at chris.smit@culturematters.com * Send me a Tweet: @chrissmit Finally Thank you so much for taking the time to read this far, and to listen to my Podcast. I hope you will be back for the next episode of the Culture Matters Podcast!