Best Practices in Managing Cross Cultural Concerns

Dear Friends,

I have just completed five days in Paris France, where I attended the Fall Meeting of the Section of International Law and Practice of the American Bar Association. I am a member of this Section and as always I learned so much about what is going on in our global legal world with up to date information on many parts of our global business world.

What was most interesting to me is that through all of the discussions on mergers and acquisitions, mediation and any other type of legal activity that is going on in our global legal world, there was little if any understanding that at the base of each cross boarder opportunity for work is the glaring need for effective management of cross cultural concerns among the varying national cultures represented through the parties to each "deal".

I am reminded of a statement by Mr. Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE, when asked about cross cultural concerns when creating a global "deal". Jack said in a July issue of Newsweek magazine in 2007 that in the heat of the deal, one forgets about such things as cross cultural concerns. That was clear in these meetings I just attended as the talk is all about the national and internatinal law that can be used when creating the deal. Nothing was said about the greatest risk of all that can and does undermine the benefit of the bargain for parties to the bargain, the cross cultural risk, which is at the heart of each cross boarder deal created. It is the cross cultural concerns that can and do then undermine over 80% of the cross boarder deals created globally. Jack's own commments came back to bite the deals that he created for GE. Many of his deals have failed financially as well as in terms of maximizing the present and future work opportunities existent in each signed global contract.

So as you read this blog entry, please look back at the earlier entries on this blog and apply the Five Best Practices for minimizing risk in managing Cross Cultural Concerns in global contracting.

I look forward to hearing from you readers and your comments.

Warm regards,

Jane

Jane E. Smith
LiSimba Consulting Services Inc.
Buildling Relationships for International Business Success
www.lisimba.com
jsmith@lisimba.com
Telephone: 612-802-1240