'Active listening' is a communication skill crucial to doing cross-cultural business.

As a skill, it requires the listener to become attuned with the speaker in order to confirm what they have heard and moreover, to confirm the understanding of both parties.

Different perspectives = different priorities.

This is true of anything in life and especially in global business.

Have you ever thought about the link between culture and retail?

One of the first things I like to do when I go into a different country is go check out the local supermarket.

You can read as many books about cultural awareness as you like; you will only become successful when working with other cultures when you put your knowledge into action.

When working on a cross-cultural basis, cultural awareness training often isn’t enough says Andy Molinsky.

Want to improve your people skills?

Need to train staff in communication skills?

Exporting food?

Beware of cultural differences and always carry out research on consumer, retail and shopping habits say the experts.

A report undertaken by Ipsos called "Culture at Work" throws some interesting light on intercultural skills in the international workplace.

The intercultural skills most commonly reported by these business included: 

A new report from Ipsos finds that businesses need and want people with intercultual skills.

John Worne agrees, stressing the importance of knowing your foreign languages and being culturally aware as a company.

Doing business internationally can be exciting and fulfilling.

It can also present opportunities to learn new approaches to the workplace. 

Weichert Relocation specialists, provide essential insights into international relocations and personnel movement with their whitepaper “Current Global Workforce Mobility Trends”. 

As online cultural awareness training providers, whitepapers such as these are essential to helping us ensure our expatriate cultural training programmes meet the needs of relocating staff.

As a training consultant, one of the best aspects of my work is seeing how different industries approach employee training.

I'm lucky, I get to meet HR, L&D and Training Managers from across industries and businesses and to them about their work. In my last visit to Paris, I was blown over by the proactivity and dedication to training by a natural resources company. 

Do you question how important culture is to our daily lives?

Well many do. In reality however culture is at play moulding the world around us every minute of every day; sometimes in ways we don't understand.

From companies to government institutions, managers are now realising that innovation and creativity is the way to make money and positively evolve.

Soren Peterson has investigated what creative professionals believe are the ingredients for a booming creative economy.

After decades of spitting, burping and littering, China seems to be ready for an Etiquette Revolution!

And how are they overthrowing behaviours that might be considered 'bad manners' elsewhere? With a touch of good ole fashioned British courtesies.

It is well a known fact that a very British cultural trait is to keep yourself to yourself and not to bother others or cause them inconvenience.

The "stiff upper lip" as it is sometimes known.

As a company, it is never easy to unify an existing business with a newly acquired one through a merger or aquisition.

In fact, a study by Isaac Dixon, "Culture Management and Mergers and Acquisitions," showed that cultural differences were at the heart of 30% failed mergers and aquisitions. 

You might think cultural training is only useful for people and businesses that are associated with global business - for example, international sales teams or global managers.

You would be wrong! Raising cultural awareness is useful for everyone and anyone. 

Even though modern-day society seems to become more intercultural every year, the opposite is true for the Anglo-Indian community where Western traditions and appearances meet those of the Indian subcontinent.

The BBC recently looked at the fate of the Ango-Indian culture which offers a fascinating insight into this little known group.

As many Chinese tourists only pay a brief visit to the city, local Boston companies are now getting training to increase their appeal to this important group of visitors (and revenue stream).

According to The BBC, many Chinese tourists travel to the United States for their holidays. The top three American cities they visit are New York, Los Angeles and Washington DC, but Boston isn’t far behind.

However, the Chinese often only visit this city to check out universities like Harvard and the MIT, resulting in very short visits that aren’t very beneficial for the local Boston businesses.

If Chinese visitors could stay longer, the boom to the local economy could be massive.

Jolin Zhou, who works for the Chinese tour operator Sunshine Travel in Boston, tells a story about a Chinese man and his teenage son who had come to Boston to look at universities. "One day he asked my co-worker, 'Can you recommend a meal, a good restaurant and bring me there? The best restaurant in Boston, no matter how expensive.' My co-worker brought him to a restaurant; they spent $1,000 for two of them for dinner."

Zhou told this story to participants of a tourism workshop that was set up by the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism. The Office wants to attract more Chinese people to the region as the middle class in China consists of about 300 million people who are spending more and more time abroad. In terms of most visitors per country, they are the ninth biggest group in the US, and the fastest growing one. They even rank third in the biggest spenders when travelling abroad.

The Middle East is an area that carries many stereotypes and myths.

Before doing business in the Middle East it is imperative to learn about areas such as business culture, business etiquette, meeting protocol and negotiation techniques.