OUR OBJECTIVE

The goal of this book is simple: to help you to be more successful in working with Americans. Whether Americans are your customers, suppliers, colleagues, bosses, or members of your team, the opinions, information, and guidelines offered here are designed to ensure that those relationships are positive and profitable.

This book is addressed to non-American readers who have business contacts in some form with people from the United States. If you plan to be living in American for an extended period, you will find that the full range of topics we cover here will facilitate your adjustment to business life in America. Those of you who are on shorter-term assignments, or who will be frequent business visitors to the States may have particular need for information on establishing relationships, management and teamwork, communication and negotiation styles, and business etiquette and “workplace correctness.”

Alternatively, you may be primarily based in your home country, without the need for travel to the States, with responsibilities that involve frequent communication by e-mail or telephone with American partners, colleagues or management. You may also be the “host” to Americans assigned to work in your country. In that case, understanding the “American ways” of management, teamwork and communication is essential.

OUR APPROACH

Our approach is based on helping you develop a practical understanding, not of American “culture” as a whole, but rather of what we have chosen to call the “American way” of business.

Every cultural group views the world in a particular way that is understood by and makes sense to its members. This shared understanding enables them to identify with each other and to deal with the problems of human existence. Americans in particular have evolved certain values, assumptions, and expectations concerning one of those problems – the purpose and conduct of business activities. The interaction of these beliefs, expectations of self and others, and norms of appropriate behavior – call it “business culture” if you like – influences how Americans act and, equally importantly, how they react to you, the non-American of a different background.

Much of what you may have already observed or experienced concerning Americans in business may not surprise you. Some of it may even have much in common with business and social behavior in your country. Other aspects, however, may be unexpected, confusing, and even frustrating. We will not be able to cope with those reactions unless we can begin to see the world from their perspective. Our practical understanding starts, therefore, with learning how Americans see themselves, the world as a whole, and the world of business.

When it comes to the various specific aspects of the American way of business, we concentrate on those that often present the greatest challenges to non-Americans. These are covered in detail in Chapters 4 to 8 and concern relationships, motivation, management and teamwork, communication, and negotiation. The questions we pose and the problems we analyze in those areas are based on the actual collected and collective experience of international business people from many countries. They are not based on the theories or research methods of anthropologists, cross-cultural researchers, or social psychologists. These specialists have made some useful observations for us to draw upon, but none of them has ever had to make a presentation to American venture capitalists, take over the leadership of an American company, interview an American job-seeker, or negotiate a service contract with an American customer. Those are the situations where, as we Americans say (borrowing an advertising slogan from the tire industry), “the rubber meets the road” – where the abilities of people are put to the test.

In your dealings with Americans, perhaps you are worried about offending or “turning off” Americans, and want to avoid the “worst case scenarios”. Or maybe you prefer instead to focus on making the most of the opportunities that working with Americans offers. Either way, we offer practical strategies for preventing problems, making the right impression, getting results.

NEVER SAY “NEVER”

This is, however, neither a cookbook nor a rulebook. In situations where there are clear “do’s and don’ts”, for American social and business customs, we point these out. But your individual situation and your experience with Americans will be unique. Business is conducted by people, not by “cultures”, or even by organizations. When it comes to dealing with the attitudes and behavior of people of any country, we must talk in terms of possibilities rather than predictions, of understanding before blaming or criticizing, and of applying judgement rather than a list of rules.

BUILDING BRIDGES

Ten out of the eleven chapters in the book are directed at helping you to deal with them, the Americans. They offer guidelines on understanding American business culture and how to work effectively in it. But in the final chapter we change perspective. There we invite you, the reader, to consider how you can help the Americans learn from you, in terms of what you can bring to them in the way of greater international knowledge and fresh perspectives on doing business together. That is a tough challenge, but look at it the way an American would – the glass is half full, not half empty.(1)