Should You Be Afraid Of Cultural Blunders?

Cross-Cultural Communication Blunders

There are many stories out there about the cultural blunders businesses make. These stories always make a splash in the media.

Some of them are high profile blunders.
Some of them cost companies money.
Some of them caused a loss in potential revenue.
Some of them delayed international expansion…for a long time.

Mistakes Are Human

And yet, when you try to verify the stories, it is often hard to get all of the facts. Why? Because most cultural blunders are made through bad cross cultural communication. And the bad communication can usually be pinpointed to a person or a group of people.

Cultural blunders are due to human error. Companies are made of people. So when a company is afraid of cultural blunders it is often because the people in the company recognize the challenge this represents for them.

Do You Need To Be Afraid?

There are many reasons to feel afraid of international expansion. But there is something not to forget.

Most of the companies who made these cultural mistakes also took many more international business decisions that proved right. Their batting average was good.

Give Yourself Time

International success depends on one thing:

Take things one step at a time.

You need to give yourself the time to

Do all of the necessary market research.
Learn everything there is to know about your market.
Get to know and understand your foreign prospects.
Understand how your foreigners feel about your product.

Most businesses, and their employees, are good at what they do in their domestic markets. They simply need to learn to adapt to a new market. And this takes some effort and some time.

Most cultural blunders happen because companies do not take the time to do things right. Or they try to jump ahead of themselves too fast.

Most cultural blunders are due to human error. Remember to give all of your team the chance to adapt to new cultures.

Learn To Recuperate Quickly From Your Errors

Cross cultural communication is a minefield of potential blunders for everyone. Even experienced cross cultural specialists can make cultural mistakes. They usually know how to recuperate the communication quickly. But no one is beyond making those cultural blunders.

Perhaps that’s the key.

Give yourself the time to learn and adjust to different cultures.
Cultivate the capacity to recuperate quickly when blunders happen.

Open Yourself To Personal Growth

International business expansion can be a significant source of revenue and bring you all of the things that go with this. It is also a wonderful opportunity for personal growth for everyone involved.

So, no don’t be afraid of the cultural blunders. There is no way you can avoid them.
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