The Culture Factor

 

Cost of Ignoring the “Culture Factor” when Doing Business across Cultures

 

  • Over half of businesses that want to increase global business presence fail to do so effectively; number one quoted reason is lack of cultural awareness of local business practices
  • Ignoring the “culture factor” lowers the effectiveness of global marketing efforts, product development, positioning, marketing communications, market research, customer service and results in lost opportunities during negotiations, conflict resolution processes, cost management, human resource management, mergers and strategic partnerships.
  • It costs an average of $150,000 to $250,000 in direct costs for an American company to bring a mid-level executive home early from a foreign assignment; challenges related to intercultural skills are some of the top reasons for premature returns.
  • Without pre-departure intercultural training, only from 15 to 20 percent of your company’s successful American mid-level executives can be expected to function fairly effectively in the overseas environment.
  • Without intercultural training, as many as 15-40% of U.S. multinational corporations’ expatriate placements experience premature return because of cross-cultural problems.
  • With effective intercultural training, the failure rate can be reduced significantly, and those who would have succeeded without training will be able to produce at a far higher level.

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