Last OB Class was about managing across cultures. Every working group had to come up with one myth about their nationality and two insights about how to manage successfully in their country. We looked at the US, France, the UK, Portugal, Ireland, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Peru, Singapore, Hong Kong, Romania, Mainland China, Japan, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Germany, Italian…Advice came straight from the source!

This class was so interesting that the effort of writing all this down left me with a very sore hand…

Some extracts:
- “ People think that Germans do not have a sense of humor. That’s wrong. I am serious about that”
- “They are many ways that lead to Rome. Germans would take the straightest”
-“In Daimler- Chrysler, Chrysler is silent”

- “There seems to be this myth about Irish drinking Guiness. This is very wrong. We also drink Whisky, 6X, Vodka, etc…”

- “The English have a special sense of directness. For instance, “that’s very interesting” really means “thanks for nothing, let’s move on””

- “Everyone thinks that the Italians are on this planet only to enjoy life: they like eating well, drinking well, partying well, and wearing nice clothes. Do not underestimate them”
-"In Italy, family, meaning friends, family, personal contacts, is very important. It is reminiscent from the days of regional break up in Italy and dominace of large families. It is important to have a Father in Italy."

- “In Japan, do not force people to say “no”. The word no and different are the same. So in general people formulate sentences to avoid embarrassment and allow for a positive answer to a negative point. For instance, a rhetorical “do you agree?” which would be answered by a no is transformed into a rhetorical “do you disagree?”, which would be answered by a yes.”
- “In Japan, we don’t want to lose face. If you make me lose face, even though your business makes a lot of sense to me, I’ll let you down, lose a lot of money but save my honor. There is even this spot in Japan for people who have an office near the window: they get paid, even promoted just to sit by a window and watch the traffic below”

- “There is this myth that the Dutch are on drugs, this is totally wrong. Take me for instance I have never smoked”

- “It is true that Peru’s most well known export is Cocaine. This is wrong though, we have loads of other exports”
- “There is myths that Lebanese people are very good businesspeople and that you never know what they really think. Well, this is not just a myth.”

- “All of this cult-like bullshit about corporate core values and message will definitely not work in Romania. After over 50 years of communist indoctrination, we run away from any emulation of an ideal”

- “There is a myth that Portugal used to be only about fish and agriculture. Things have changed, we left the fish to the Spanish and we have become good engineers. What we lack now are good MBAs”
-“Everyone believes that the French are great lovers. Well, the Portuguese are much better”

- “There is this myth that Israeli are rude, especially with foreigners. We are direct, cut the crap type people”

- “In France, people have high social values. A firm’s role in society is just not to make shareholders rich. And for women, it is 3 kisses in the South, 2 in Lyon and 4 in Paris”

- “There is this myth about Switzerland being a boring country. How can a country with three different cultures and languages ever be boring?”

- “everyone believes that Austria is backward looking and xenophobic. You have to understand that there is only one big city in this Alpine country, Vienna. This city was once at the head of a huge and powerful empire of which nothing remains. Austrian love their history. So I guess that it is true that we are backward looking. Now whenever I read the Financial Times and find an article about Austria, I immediately look up Jorg Haider’s name. I guess that since he was elected, the country’s also a little right-wing oriented. Never mind…”

- “everyone believes that the Chinese market is made of totally inefficient state-owned companies exploiting low wage workers in order to make it in the world market. False. Most of these companies have gone under and in the past 10 years, the government has strengthen financial markets to allow for the development of fast moving companies, employing a highly educated highly motivated workforce.”

- “Apparently, Thailand is very well-known for the proliferation of prostitution. To be honest, when I look at the Fontainebleau forest, I am not sure that we have such a clear competitive advantage”