Cross-Cultural Training & Development
Overview
"Think globally - act locally"
Easy to say, difficult to do. All countries are different from all others. Communication and cooperation across cultural borders carries cultural risk. Cultural mis-communication is expensive. It affects your business performance much more than you can imagine. Understand how culture affects your bottom line. Learn to avoid cultural misunderstandings. Learn to manage cultural risk. Improve your international competence.
Learning from experience
Unlike other seminars, our seminars are based on extensive real-life and practical experience with the French (Americans, Germans, Japanese). They provide theoretical and practical advice. And they are custom-tailored according to your specific requirements.
About Ingo Regier
Ingo Regier is President of Global Alliances Inc., an international business development and management consulting firm serving clients in the US, Europe, Japan/ Asia-Pacific and other countries to better understand foreign business practices and to penetrate foreign markets. His seminars and workshops are based on anthropology adapted for business use. They draw on his extensive life and business experiences in Asia/Japan, Europe/Germany/France and the USA.
An international entrepreneur with a German background, Ingo Regier has held international executive positions with leading US, European and Japanese companies, mainly in the health-care industry. He also established strategic alliances for American Fortune-500 and French companies during his eight years' stay in Japan. Prior to working and living in Japan, he built a European business presence for leading American and Japanese corporations.
Improve your global competitiveness
Everything in culture is interrelated. Our seminars and workshops provide you with a deep and comprehensive insight into the French (or American, German, Japanese) business culture. Trace the roots of German culture and values, and understand how French history and tradition continue to affect today's French. You will become aware that there is a difference and will learn how to function with the difference. You will begin to appreciate the French culture while learning more about your own cultural conditioning.
Improve your intercultural skills
Learn how to work more effectively with the French (the Americans, Germans, Japanese), how to communicate with a French partner, how to motivate your French colleagues, what to expect from your French boss. Learn to anticipate and properly evaluate situations, to make the right decision, to negotiate more successfully and to manage conflicts with the French. Learn to compete against the French (Americans, German, Japanese), know their strengths and weaknesses.
Seminar Profile
Our seminars are about differences, open and hidden, cultural differences. Using practical experiences and realistic case studies, you will learn about French (American, German, Japanese) business characteristics: organizational structures, hierarchy and status, information flow, management and leadership, HR-management, motivation, conflicts, preferences, manners & formalities. But to begin with, you will learn how differently a French is being reared, educated and socialized. You will receive feedback: see yourself from a French perspective.
Our seminars and workshops provide much useful practical advice. They are custom-tailored to meet your actual needs whether you are exporting, licensing-out or buying products or services, or whether you have a French subsidiary, a partnership or a friendship with a French (American, German, Japanese).
Seminars are full-day or half-day seminars. The duration of workshops depends on the topic and actual needs.
Popular programs
- American Culture and Business Relations
- French Culture and Business Relations
- German Culture and Business Relations
- Japanese Culture and Business Relations
- Cultural Training for the Global Marketplace
- Managing a foreign subsidiary, JV, Strategic Alliance
- Cross-cultural communication and cooperation
- Management, Teamwork, Motivation in Europe/Japan/USA
- Managing conflicts, solving problems in Europe/Japan/USA
- Value conflicts Europe/Japan/USA/
What participants can expect
(Example: "French Culture and Business Relations" seminar for an American audience):
- A one-day seminar by an international executive, based on extensive real-life and practical business experience in working with the French.
- A better understanding of the significance of cultural differences in doing business in an international organization: How culture influences every aspect of an operation, including management style, products and services, as well as relationships with suppliers, competitors, government and-most importantly-partners abroad.
- A comprehensive insight into French cultural backgrounds and business cultural roots.
- Insight into why and how French businesspeople are different from American businesspeople, including different value systems.
- An understanding of open and hidden business cultural differences between Americans and the French, including a cultural comparison in terms of context, time, space, language and communication.
- An introduction into French business characteristics: communication, info-flow, network and trust; meetings, conferences and presentations; equality and status; management and leadership; recruitment and promotion; gender; teamwork, motivation, and performance evaluations; risks and conflicts; and formalities and manners.
- Valuable practical advice on how to work more effectively and harmoniously with the French, how to manage French subordinates, what to expect from a French boss, and how to communicate with a French partner.
The program will help participants
- To become aware that there are differences among the Americans and the French, to understand the size of that difference and to develop the competency to function with that difference.
- To better understand French perception of the world; their different priorities; and their different ways of thinking, doing business and socializing.
- To enjoy what's going on the cultural "front stage" but to also understand the significance of what's happening "backstage".
- To appreciate French values relevant to the working environment, including religion, work, time, achievements, wealth, change and risk.
- To know the fundamentals of the French culture.
- To learn about the French preferences and priorities in doing business.
- To communicate more effectively and work more harmoniously with French counterparts.
- To see themselves from French perspective.