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Culturally Aware Representatives Case Study

Satisfactory Essays

Culturally Aware Representatives:
If I was a manager in a multinational corporation that needed to send a team of representative to Saudi Arabia to gain a client, there would be a couple of approaches I could take in order to prepare my team. The first and most effective course of action that I could take is outsourcing a consulting company to provide cross cultural training. There are plenty of consulting companies that provide this kind of training for corporations. One firm explains, “Cultural differences are a well-documented source of conflict for business people operating in foreign markets. Failure to understand these differences and find ways to bridge the cultural divide can lead to conflict within your team, difficult relationships with clients and suppliers. (Riley, 2012)”
Pros: Well-developed training program, Experience in training and …show more content…

Pros: Cost effective (Cost Analysis w/ second Course of Action)
Cons: Timely in training Development (affects cost), Lack of internal experience (assumption), one side perspective.
The third and last course of action would be to give personal cultural advice to the team in order to help them with their future endeavors and gaining our clients trust. This type of advice would include the following:
Gaining the trust of our client: Understanding business conversations and settings, understanding culture differences in meeting times and conversation. Understanding who in the conversation should speak and when (oldest son or eldest men (until too old to run business) are the ones that make decisions no matter who is speaking or looking like they are calling the shots.
Understanding of gender roles
Understanding the culture and potential clients: Understanding the custom made thobes, watches, vehicles and surroundings of who is in charge and who is along for the ride.
Operating Costs in Saudi

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