Cultural nuances can make, break deal

If you want to participate in the global economy you've heard so much about, it's important to know what you don't know.

Such as when it's OK to say "no."

An American doing business with a German counterpart might say "no" quickly and, though that isn't the preferred answer, the directness will be appreciated. But an American meeting with a Chinese businessperson could offer the same definitive "no" and permanently damage the relationship.

It's a fine line between overgeneralizing about an entire people and knowing what generally is considered rude in a foreign country, said Debbie Dault, a senior consultant for global services with the relocation firm MI Group, in a phone interview from the company's Norcross office. But it is important to become familiar with business customs if you're trying to close a deal or get a job with an employer based overseas.

"We kiddingly say it's like sensitivity training," Dault said. "But it's really about respecting another culture and diversity."

Sometimes, respecting another person's culture might mean getting to the point faster than Americans are used to.

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Gov. Sonny Perdue congratulates Kia Chairman and CEO Chung Mong-Koo after the official groundbreaking of the new Kia plant in West Point last October. When Georgia was courting the company to build a plant here, officials paid close attention to Korean etiquette.

"A German employee working in Atlanta found that the work environment was too informal," Dault said. "People put up cartoons making fun of human resources or engineers. It seemed like meetings took forever, because of all the informal discussions about personal lives that had to take place before they could discuss business."

If the answer was "no," she said, this German wished they'd just say so.

Robert Webb, chairman and managing partner of Atlanta-based law firm Troutman Sanders, said the situation is different in China, where the firm has had a presence for 10 years. Webb has traveled there on business extensively.

"You never answer a question with 'no,' " he said. "You respond, 'that is something we can talk about later' or something like that. But it is considered rude to just say 'no.' "

Preparing Americans to establish business relationships overseas is big in metro Atlanta these days. Firms such as Dault's help employees transferring overseas find housing, navigate local regulations and learn the fundamentals of polite conduct that may not be familiar to Americans.

When Georgia economic-development officials courted the decision-makers of Kia Motors in Seoul, South Korea, they went to great lengths to make sure that, if Georgia didn't get the auto plant, it wouldn't be because of a slip in protocol.

"We have staff in Korea, and it's a big deal," said Bert Brantley, a spokesman for Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue. "It's very detailed, down to making sure we have the right kind of lunch."

Apparently, the menus the Georgians provided were satisfactory. Kia broke ground on the West Point manufacturing plant last fall.

Georgia's major universities offer overseas courses as part of executive MBA programs, and part of the curriculum includes lessons in business culture in the country being studied.

David Bruce, a professor of international business at Georgia State University, also runs a consulting service to companies that relocate employees who need training prior to their assignments.

Americans often need to be trained to take a slower approach to negotiations, he said.

"In Asia and Latin America, everyone talks about relationship-building," Bruce said. "People are more likely to do business with you if they like you. Americans tend to focus on the paperwork and the business deal."

Webb said that, the first time he traveled to China for his law firm, he benefited from advice given by a partner who was a native of the People's Republic. He also purchased books about China to read before his trip.

He learned that formal dinners can include up to two dozen courses, mostly small portions, and that it's bad form not to take at least a bite of each one. As in other parts of Asia, there is a proper protocol for presenting a business card: hold it with two hands and face the writing toward the person.

"And when one is handed to you, it is important to actually look at the card," Webb said.

There are plenty of anecdotes about how a lack of knowledge about cultural issues hurt someone's business.

Georgia State's Bruce offers the one about how a well-known Florida amusement park grew impatient with boisterous behavior by busloads of touring Brazilian teens. So park officials printed a code of conduct to hand to teens from Brazil as they disembarked from the tour bus. It was written in Spanish.

"In Brazil, they are very sensitive that people don't know they speak Portuguese," Bruce said.

Dault offers the example of an American dispatched to Guatemala to improve the efficiency of a struggling plant. He called a meeting of all the employees and asked them their opinions of how to save the plant and make it more efficient.

"The next day there were many resignations and a mass exodus," she said. "The employees apparently thought that, if he was asking them what to do, then the plant was doomed."

And if you think that an assignment in London would be a breeze, Dault says that's not necessarily so.

"People think if you're going to an English-speaking, or like-speaking, country it will be easy, because they don't think about how difficult it can be," Dault said. "So there are more failed assignments to England than other countries."

Some differences are logistical, such as the lack of an American-style multiple listing service in real estate or the fact that there aren't grocery stores on every corner. Others are linguistic, even though the language is English.

"Years ago I went to London, and, after a meal at a restaurant, I said to the waiter, 'I'm stuffed,' " Dault said. "And then there was this embarrassing silence."

Later, she found out that she had used common British slang to announce she was having sex.