Boulder companies train international firms about bridging cultural gaps

Business Report Correspondent

BOULDER — In a global economy, attention to cultural differences can be crucial. To meet the challenge, local and international companies are adding intercultural programs to their employee-education offerings.

Two Boulder firms, Cross Cultural Communications Inc. (CCC) and Tucker International, are serving that market.

SPONSORED CONTENT

How dispatchable resources enable the clean energy transition

Platte River must prepare for the retirement of 431 megawatts (MW) of dispatchable, coal-fired generation by the end of the decade and address more frequent extreme weather events that can bring dark calms (periods when there is no sun or wind).

CCC’s clients include global companies doing business in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the United States. CCC offers intercultural training and workshops on international business, marketing and team-building. “There now are team structures in companies for research and development, market research, production and distribution. The given team is no longer within the same country. Companies can gain an edge if they bring people together to learn about each other so misunderstandings do not occur, trust does not break down, and common objectives are achieved in the fastest and most effective way,´ said Gary Moore, president of Cross Cultural Communications.

A specialist in business-to-business marketing, Moore founded G.E. Moore Communications in 1977. Three years ago, Moore merged that company with German-based Creative Coaching, formerly owned by his wife, Barbara Moore, to form CCC.

Barbara Moore’s cross-cultural communications and language training experience spans 15 years. She is from Munich, Germany.

The Moores divide training duties. Barbara focuses on international business issues such as team building, leadership and management. She also conducts training on how to manage meetings, and do presentations in other countries. Gary helps companies adapt marketing strategies and communications to cultural differences in target markets.

Last June, Gary Moore conducted a three-day sales and marketing workshop for Munich-based Daimler Chrysler Aerospace Military Aircraft Division. Participants were from 16 countries. Daimler is launching a new Eurofighter in defense markets in Europe, South America and Southeast Asia. Workshop content included how to present the Eurofighter benefits to a particular culture. “What a country cares about is relative to where it is located,” Gary Moore said. “For example, the Asian view can be different from Saudi Arabia that is on the border of Iraq.”

Barbara Moore completed six German-language and intercultural training books for Munich-based BMW last fall. The project took about 18 months. Geared for BMW employees around the world, the books introduce the German language by focusing on BMW’s corporate culture, business philosophy, and the design, production, sales and marketing of the firm’s automobile and motorcycle products. “BMW’s idea was that this would give people material that would be more interesting for learning the language,” Barbara Moore said.

Tucker International offers assessment, selection and intercultural training for Fortune 100 companies around the world. TI has 20 full-time employees. Part-time specialists and resource people are hired for specific country training.

From September 1999 through March 2000, TI was retained by Louisville-based Storage Technology Corp. to conduct voluntary intercultural training workshops for employees in its purchasing and logistics departments. “We ran this special program at the request of the leadership of the purchasing and logistics departments. They realized that a lot of people in their organization were interacting with people from around the world, and felt a cultural training program would enhance their employees’ ability to do business,´ said Susan Curtis, director of workforce development at StorageTek.

StorageTek is a network storage provider with products and services available in 50 countries, and a manufacturing facility in Toulouse, France. It has 3,000 local and 8,200 worldwide employees. In 1999, revenues were $2.37 billion with 59 percent of that domestic and 41 percent international.

Michael Tucker, TI’s president, and Loretta Sunter-Tucker co-founded TI in 1994. They previously co-founded Moran, Stahl and Boyer International in 1982. Tucker is the author of the “Overseas Assignment Inventory” and “International Candidate Evaluation.” These instruments are used by TI and client companies to assess, select and prepare personnel and their spouses for international assignments.

About 120 StorageTek employees attended TI’s intercultural workshops. “Our culture determines our way of thinking, our values, our perceptions, decision-making and the way we treat other people,” Tucker said “When we meet someone from another culture, we see certain things. We try to get people to understand why people think the way they do so they can work more effectively together,” Tucker said.

Japanese sometimes take a very long time, for example, to make decisions, Tucker said. They never seem to be alone and work in groups. The deep cultural values driving that behavior are the need for inclusiveness in decision making and the need for certainty. When one takes those values and applies them to Japanese decision-making, it is possible to understand why it can take time to secure a Japanese contract. “A person can learn tidbits about a culture, but unless he has the cultural framework understanding, he cannot apply them,” Tucker said.

According to Curtis, TI’s intercultural sessions for StorageTek’s purchasing and logistics departments “enhanced employee awareness” of cultural issues.