Inter-dependent business environment
In this new inter-dependent business environment:
You need to be able to:
What does this mean to you:
Understand interdependencies – complexity of decision making on global stage
You need to know that what happens in one company or country will have an impact on others. Keep up with current affairs and know what is happening in the global economy. Watch the news and find out how things happening abroad will affect you at home.
Know your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses
That way you will know exactly what you are up against and how you can compete with them for market share.
Know your own company’s strengths and weaknesses
Make sure you carry out a SWOT analysis and where you have strengths, then exploit them; and where you have weaknesses, then address them.
Analyse where new opportunities may come from
Look globally for new business opportunities, but also make sure you regularly carry out a PEST analysis as this may highlight changes which you can exploit in your internal market too.
Respond to different cultures simultaneously – not sequential like an expatriate
You will need to be able to interact with people from a number of different cultures at the same time and you need to know how to do this effectively. Cultures have different approaches to meetings, formal negotiations and protocols. You need to make sure you don’t offend people.
Have a willingness to share power – learn from foreign businesses
Be receptive to new ideas and new ways of working. Keep an open mind and be inquisitive to learn new ways of doing things.
Recognise cultural differences at home – do not overlook foreigners in home organisation
Cultural awareness at home is also very important. You need to make sure you get the best out of your workforce and adapt to meet the needs of cultural groups.
Think about local responsiveness to global requirements (Wills & Barham, 1994)
Related to understanding the global market place you need to think about how you can respond to it at a local level – from your company’s perspective. So the financial crisis in Greece currently – what are the implications for your business – what are the opportunities? The threats?
Awareness of national, corporate & financial differences
Again – keep up to speed with current news events, and also understand how to do business with other countries and the ways in which they do things. Who you might need to go through and what specific requirements they might have.
Develop cross-cultural competence:
- Learning about thinking & feeling (EI)
- Active participation by learners
- Learning specific to own jobs
- Balance of specific & general knowledge
- Awareness of own culture
- Allow for experimentation & taking risks
Basically this means being flexible and open-minded to new ideas and new ways of doing things. Be adaptable and not ‘stuck in your ways’. Do not think that your way is best…always look for the ‘new’.
Adopt a ‘culture-general’ response
Rather than just knowing about one culture other than your own and one language, try to learn about lots of different cultures but not in-depth. Just an overall awareness of how different cultures do different things. Learn just a few key phrases in a language and this will ‘oil the wheels’.
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Project
Contact
This resource was developed as part of an Erasmus+ project, funded with support from the European Commission under grant agreement 2016-1-SE01-KA203-22064.
The project was a collaboration between:
- The University of Borås, Sweden
- The University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland
- The University of Alcalá, Spain
- Digital Connections, Scotland
This resource has been released under Creative Commons license CC-BY-SA 4.0.
Disclaimer
If you would like more information on this resource please contact:
- Academic content – The University of the Highlands and Islands (www.uhi.ac.uk)
- Technical resource development – The University of the Highlands and Islands Educational Development Unit - EDU (edu@uhi.ac.uk)
Except where otherwise noted, this website is licensed under Creative Commons license CC-BY-SA 4.0. All images used under permission remain the copyright of the license holder.
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