Don was a cultural whiz, with 20 years experience and great skills in securing contracts around the world. His company wanted him to run a PR event to celebrate signing a contract on a large new office tower in Beijing. The event went off without a hitch, but for one small detail.
Amid the lights, the attractive tables, classical music, and black ties, the head negotiator for the Chinese team came to Don and quietly spoke in his ear. He announced to Don in no uncertain terms, "What do you intend with this event? We don't have a deal. We have a basic understanding."
Now Don, the so-called cross-culture expert, has to explain this to the boss.
Discussion
The first mistake is to make the dangerous assumption that Asia is the same as China. Global expertise doesn't always mean specific expertise. They need to get a country expert on this task right away.
There may be some bad management here, but it may be mainly a problem of culture competency. This company needs to ask if they've looked thru the lens of culture yet. Go beyond just looking at a situation and ask where cultural variables are at play in other parts of the organization. Particularly in China, it's important to either have history (and it should probably be a long history!) or have a country expert who will work with your organization to make connections within the culture.
People tend to think the cultural difference is a one-off, unique situation. The attitude tends to be "If we learn enough about the culture, we'll solve this culture difference problem." With that strategy, there's a risk you might just keep making the same mistakes. This company needs to connect with someone intimate to a given culture, and treat that expense as the cost of doing business the right way.
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