The Lingua Franca of Business Etiquette

Understanding both business etiquette and cross-cultural sensibilities can go a long way in either making or breaking your brand.

Hundreds of years ago, when the world was being traversed by sailors from dozens of nations, and each vessel was manned by any number of nationalities, new languages called lingua franca began to emerge.These languages were often a blend of Portuguese, English, French, Mandarin and local languages, and allowed for communication and trade between the polyglot merchants both on board and on the mainland.  Several examples of it exist today - the pidgin of Papua New Guinea is one example.

More recently, a famous high street bank launched an advertising campaign which confronted a major concern for many people, particularly businesses in a gradually shrinking and globalizing world. "We understand", if I can paraphrase the theme of the campaign, "about how to do business in foreign countries because we are a bank with considerable international experience." The clear implication was that the bank would invest your money worldwide and look after your business internationally too. They could communicate across borders and not make errors in social etiquette that would cost your company money.

It was a clever campaign because one of the great fears emerging over recent years, and about which senior management quakes with trepidation - to the extent that some companies make their staff undertake language or cultural sensitivity courses. Nothing can scupper a relationship faster, goes the thinking, than forgetting to slurp your noodles in Japan, refusing your Russian host's offer of vodka, of eating using your left hand in India or of changing from white wine to red in the UK. (This was suggested in an article in USA Today - Doing Business Abroad? Simple faux pas Can Sink You. August 23rd 2007).

Put to one of the nationalities above, these examples sound ridiculous, utilizing as they do the tired international cliches that decorum - form, if you will - is more important than substance. Nobody is denying that little personal connections can help to facilitate deals - what is networking about after all - but is someone for example mixing their wines at dinner or slurping their noodles too softly really such a deal-breaker? Should we be affording the same sort of cliche avoidance to our international business partners?

There are several famous instances. In Japan, studying the business card and not putting it away until your meeting is over is totally correct and polite. In Chinese culture, giving and accepting money or important documents is traditionally done with two hands, so that both parties know where each others' hands are during the deal. In Thailand one should keep smiling throughout all sorts of hardships as losing one's temper is considered extremely crass (and crass people do not make good business partners). In Russia, vodka is not ceremonial but is interwoven into the social fabric, and Russians like to do business with people who don't refuse their national drink.

However anyone who believes that making this kind of simple faux pas will regularly destroy perfectly good deals is doing the foreign culture an injustice. Craig Coltrane, a senior manager in the pharmaceutical industry, whose work has taken him all over the world, says: "Many of the myths one hears about errors in etiquette are quite true. However, most people in most cultures are inclined to see your errors as what they are, simple misunderstandings or cross cultural differences. You will usually get a lot more latitude than you think. The Japanese, for instance, are aware that they have several unique rules and social behaviors, yet they are also extremely forgiving."

He goes on to try and dispel the myths. "If you do make a "mistake" they are far more likely either to laugh with you to diffuse the embarrassment and explain away that you are a foreigner, therefore not expected to understand it all, than to storm away cursing. If the deal breaks down, particularly in Asia, it is unlikely that your faux pas will be used as an excuse." Far more important than trying to get all the little details right, he believes that companies and individuals would be better off focusing on, "the bigger picture.

Trying to speak even a little of the language politely, even if your pronunciation is far from perfect, will get you far in most places. It's not that we shouldn't try to get the details right, but expressing a clear respect for your business partner's position and communicating clearly is something that many forget to do at a very basic level and is far more crucial. And lastly, don't forget that the other person is likely to be just as aware and fearful of your culture when they visit you. So if their offered handshake seems a little limp, try and remember that only in some Western cultures do we prefer the bone-crunching variety."

Coltrane believes that the same kind of pattern that characterized lingua franca in the past is destined for the intercourse of business. "Already we are seeing western business people learning to bow in East Asia (the trick is to look at the floor, not the other person's eyes) and Asian business managers are starting to have more confidence in shaking hands more firmly and to make eye contact, both of which are as alien to them as it is to westerners to bow." Perhaps, in a generation or two from now, there will be a lingua franca of etiquette and everyone can get down to the real job of doing business without as much concern that they are causing the other person distress. Until then, as they say in France, vive la difference!