Managers' Forum ~ Book Reviews
When Cultures Collide
Reviewed by: Andrés Gutierrez-Meca
From the beginning I assumed that when trying to do business with an
Asian
country, the cultural barriers where going to be the biggest problem.
My
goal was to find a book that was going to help me; "understanding
and
managing different business cultures".
When I discover the book from Richard Lewis with that subtitle, I was
sure
that was the perfect one for the review.
In essence, the book covers a lot of the different countries and cultures
in
a country by country basis. It is focus on the way that people act
in their
own cultural environment. It gives you a great information about the
background of each culture, their philosophy, and their beliefs. It
really
helped me to understand some personality aspects of my classmates that
even
though I thought respectable, they were a little bit "strange" for
me
before.
Another great thing about the book is that offer you information about
the
way of doing business on many of these countries. I found this extremely
important for my because when trying to do business with South Korea
I am
learning now what the Korean business man expect from a partnership,
or
their sense of loyalty when you gain their confidence through showing
your
values and respectability.
Finally, the author give you advice about the market, and suggestions
on how
to act in the different countries. From there I know how Korean people
are
really proud of all the Korean products therefore when introducing
a product
coming from Spain I am going to have to think in a partnerships
with a
national company.
In conclusion, I am enjoying the book a lot not only because it is a
great
help for my project but also because is making me laugh a lot when
reading
about Spain. It is funny how sometimes the author have some stereotypes
that
are totally right. On the other hand he not always right, what makes
me
believe that I should not expect everything as the author describe
it, but
certainly I am not going to be surprise if that is what I found.
References:
"When cultures collide": Richard D. Lewis
Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 1999
ISBN 1-85788-087-0
