Why do we Need Cultural Sensitivity in International Business?

Businesses who ignore cultural and language differences, do so at their peril! 

In this article, we'll explore some real life examples of the reasons why cultural sensitivity is so important and the damage caused when businesses ignoture culture.

Before we do so, however, let's first lay the foundations and take a look at the influence of culture more generally. 

You may have heard the saying 'the world is getting smaller' - it has gotten smaller.

Advances in transport and communications technology, combined with the development of a world economy, have resulted in people from different nations, cultures, languages and backgrounds now communicating, meeting and doing business with one another more than ever.

There are some observers that claim this new found intimacy has led to a greater understanding of 'the other' and as a result our cultural differences are in fact diminishing.

However, in reality the opposite is true. As we come together our cultural differences become accentuated as we start to realise that the rest of the world is not reading from the same book. One area where this is now being felt is in business.

Did you hear about Bill Gates and his lack of cultural sensitivity when he met the President of South Korea? It's a simple yet effective example of why we need cultural sensitivity in international business.

Click here to find out what he did!

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Doing Business Internationally Demands Cultural Sensitivity

Very few businesses escape the need to deal with foreign colleagues, clients or customers. Businesses are increasingly international, and if an organisation wants to develop and grow it needs to harness the potential an international stage offers.

Twenty years ago British, European and American organisations doing business abroad had very little competition due to the lack of rival industrialised nations. Back then it was easy to do business 'our way'. This is now no longer the case.

Since the largest global economies have evolved to include Japan, China, Mexico, Brazil, India and South Korea, there has been a shift from 'our way' to 'let's try and understand your way'. Why? Because western organisations are feeling the impact of a lack of cultural sensitivity on business performance.

With a recognition of the need to become more 'globally minded', many organisations have started to invest heavily in employee language training to help crack foreign markets.

Cultural sensitivity training is also increasingly being seen as essential in addressing issues such as etiquette, protocol, communication styles and negotiation approaches.

In a competitive world, such businesses appreciate that greater cultural sensitivity will assist them in forging longer and more prosperous relationships. Although the return of investment of cultural sensitivity training tends to be immediate, progress in uptake is slow. Unfortunately a subconscious sense of cultural superiority still seems to reign; one that assumes the rest of the world does business like us and if they don't then they should.

The world's inhabitants however come from many faiths, cultures, world views and experiences which makes such an assumption futile. We are all different and as a result doing business across borders (whether political, religious, cultural or linguistic) requires cultural sensitivity, meaning a sense of empathy, flexibility and creativity informed by cultural knowledge. As with most things in life, business has learnt the hard way.

To illustrate how these lessons have and are still being learnt we will look at some examples where a lack of cultural sensitivity has let a company, individual or product down.

For the sake of brevity these have been summed up in two simple categories: 1. culture and 2. language.

1. How a Lack of Cultural Sensitivity Led to Business Failure

Culture comes in many shapes and sizes. The following examples demonstrate how a lack of cultural sensitivity led to failure.

2. How Language Differences Led to Business Failure

The business world is littered with poor translations that have caused great embarrassment to their perpetrators due to their lack of cultural sensitivity. The following are some of the choicest examples.

All the examples cited above could easily have been avoided by conducting some basic research in respect to checking the concept, design, shape, colour, packaging, message or name in the target culture.

In the majority of cases, the simple assumption of 'if it is OK for us it is OK for them' is clearly not the case. 

If businesses want to succeed internationally, cultural sensitivity must be at the heart of all business practices; from personal interactions and relationships with clients, to product/service development and advertising. 

Photo by Capturing the human heart. on Unsplash