Culture Matters Articles

Culture Matters Summer 2017

It’s that time of the year again: Summer + Holidays.
That means that for the months July and August there will be no posts on the Culture Matters website.
I wish you a fantastic Summer and look forward to seeing you back in September!

Doing Business in China; Five Things You MUST Understand

Doing Business in China and Working With Chinese In this country specific article I will cover several topics: Doing business in China, or the Culture of China Business Culture in China Understanding Chinese Culture Working with Chinese What This Article is NOT About...

It’s Too Expensive… What!?

That was the feedback I got; "It's too expensive"... ...and also that he didn't want to invest too much time into it. Now, I'm not in the habit of sharing my commercial success or failure here publicly on the website. But this one deserves a bit of attention. This is...

Cross-Cultural Management. How Multicultural Teams can Benefit From Cultural Competence

Cross-Cultural Management or Managing Multicultural Teams What is it; A Definition There are many ways of defining what a multicultural team is. Having checked Wikipedia, I couldn't find much for a definition. So I'll come up with my own 😉 I would consider three...

To Kiss Bow or Shake Hands; How to Best Shake Hands in Other Cultures

To Kiss Bow or Shake Hands; How to Best Shake Hands in Other Cultures How often do you kiss if that's the way you greet each other? In Belgium, it is once. In the Netherlands, it is three times. In the USA you air-kiss (kissing when only the cheeks touch). And how...

Who’s My Neighbor? A Look at Your Dutch Neighbor

Have you ever wondered who your neighbor is? Not so much in detail, but simply who he or she is, because you never see them…? In most (very) individualistic countries, people tend to keep to themselves. The Dutch are no different. Simply dropping in for a coffee in...

Travel and Culture; How the Travel Industry Can Benefit From More Cultural Awareness

Travel and culture go hand in hand I guess this is the common thinking: travel and culture go hand in hand. If you travel you get to see, hear, feel and overall experience the different cultures you're visiting. Right? Well, let me tell you that over the last 20 years...

International Business Etiquette; What Country Fits Your Manners?

International Business Etiquette [InfoGraphic] Doing business internationally opens a lot of doors for a lot of people. Of course, there’s the obvious implication that you are creating the opportunity to work with innumerable new customers and collaborators,...

How Culture Matters in Retail Business

Culture Matters in Retail I am strongly convinced that nothing (!) is culturally neutral. Not even humor. If nothing is culturally neutral then Retail isn't either. This makes the case that culture matters in retail too. It is not a training that Culture Matters...