Cross Cultural

Building international relationships is a business critical skill. Get closer to your international clients, employees, partners and suppliers with our unique system for building international client relationships. We offer assignment, induction, communication and team building programmes adapted to clients markets.

The Director of Cultural Training is Barry Tomalin, a lecturer, writer and trainer with thirty years experience in language teaching, the British Council, the BBC World Service and management training. He has trained in over 65 countries and is the author of books on France, Germany, Italy and Russia. HIs latest book International English for Call Centres is published by Macmillan and released April 2009. He is also visiting lecturer at Westminster University in London and module leader in cross-communication on the MA Applied Language Studies and the MA Diplomatic Studies in the Diplomatic Academy of London.

Four common illusions about international business communication

People are people, wherever they come from

Yes, but in a multi-national environment, where they come from will affect expectations of productivity and working procedures. Managers and team members come from different backgrounds with different histories, religions, schooling, background and training. They think about things differently. If you understand those differences you will know your colleagues better and be better able to manage them.

It's corporate culture that matters

Even corporate culture varies according to where the company is based. Emphasis on seniority, expectations of respect, degrees of formality, reporting lines and even business procedures, such as accounting procedures, can differ dramatically between countries. Remember, it's the people who seem most familiar who are often the most different.

It's just about whether you bow or shake hands

No, it goes much deeper than that, although the perception of politeness or impoliteness matters. We help you discover the values and attitudes of the different nationalities that make up your team and show how these are manifested in business and social behaviour. A two-day course can give you insights and improve your communications to revolutionise your productivity. Effective cross-cultural communication eliminates delays.

It's the task that matters, stupid

Of course, your task based qualifications matter but in a multi-national, multi-ethnic environment your people skills are just as important and that means developing sensitivity to other cultural ways of doing things. We aim to strengthen your hand by adding cross-cultural skills to your existing task-based competency. This makes you a more fully rounded and competent international manager.

Why is cross-cultural training necessary?

Cross-cultural awareness, cultural diversity knowledge and communication skills are an important part of a manager's skills set. The manager of tomorrow needs to be internationally aware and culturally sensitive. That is our mission.
Most management teams contain people of different nationalities, who think and were trained differently from their colleagues. As firms globalise, UK managers increasingly have to manage local people whose attitudes and working practices they are unfamiliar with.
Many have to relocate to new industrial and business centres such as Shanghai or Bangalore or in Central and Eastern Europe.
In the UK they work in an environment increasingly affected by the European Union and its principal members, or by UK citizens from a variety of ethnic backgrounds.