With all international business, there is room for misunderstanding. As every nation has its own unique culture and way of doing business, projects and events can fall apart through miscommunication and misunderstanding. Success then comes from understanding the cultural dynamic behind your own country and the country you are working with.
Why Is It Important To Understand Cultural Differences?
Working with another business in your own country can be challenging enough. When throwing in the barriers of language, culture, and customs, successfully creating international business requires some degree of cultural sensitivity on both sides. Things like contractual negotiations as well as assumed obligations may not be known without understanding cultural differences. In addition, knowing how other businesses operate will give you an idea of how you can build your business and in what direction the conversation should go.
What all of this leads to is a better predictive validity when it comes to future events. The more you understand the foreign company you are working with, the better able you will be to long-term plan. In addition, you will have some understanding of what to watch out for as well as potential problems in your future business relationship.
The Advantage sand Disadvantages of Cultural Differences In Event Planning
Cultural differences in event planning have a wide range of pros and cons that must be handled as they come up. For example, a major disadvantage of culture difference is decreased communication when it comes to planning. With different negotiation styles out there, it can take quite some time to figure out what level of sensitivity, emotion, and time should be taken to discuss these deals.
While communication may be more challenging, what is gained through cultural differences are new practices that can dramatically improve how you do business. Bringing an entirely new perspective to the industry, cultural differences can show you new and exciting ways to save money while delivering an experience that is both unique and powerful. Event planning in general benefits from new and exciting, and cultural differences is an excellent source for what is trending.
Ultimately, cultural differences infer a certain amount of additional risk created from the potential for misunderstanding in general practices. However, if this can be overcome, then both companies can benefit greatly from the international collaboration while providing event goers with an experience that is truly unique.