Keeping an open mind

We all have our own anecdotes about cultural stereotypes - think the HSBC campaign of a few years ago about a man at a Japanese dinner. But when I look back at my own experiences I wonder how much of them were down to the foibles of the individual rather than a representative cultural difference.

Friends have told me about Indian businesses keeping bad news from customers ‘for fear of worrying them, and Chinese giving them the jitters because they proffer minimal information in the run up to major events. Both would appear very different to a western textbook model of business communications.

Personally I’ve had Finnish customers who refused lunch as a waste of their time and Korean clients who had an uncanny awareness of where certain items were to be found in a facility that they had never visited in their lives. And then there are Japanese who are in the office at all hours … and Americans who are never at their desks when I telephone.

So what has it taught me? Nothing much … except to keep an open mind.