Martenica and Business in Multi-Cultural Environments

Chestita baba Marta! Честита баба Марта! If you are doing business in Bulgaria and you had a chance to be here last days of February and March you will enjoy:

1. In February sidewalks are full with tables and stands where you can buy Martenica - people buy martenici but looks like they do nothing with them - just put them into their bags.
2. On 1st of March you will see kids with plenty of martenica on their hands and cloths and adults have usually one on hand or they cloth

This is an ancient old tradition in Bulgaria. According to legend, the first martenica was made by Ahinora, the wife of Khan Asparuh, in the second half of the 7th century, when Asparuh crossed the Danube and discovered the lands around the Balkans for the Bulgarians. Ahinora waited for her lover for a long time and finally tied a twisted white thread on the swallow's leg and let the bird convey its message of health and love. The bird traveled a long time, and the thread injured its legs and turned blood - so it got its red color. Eventually, she found the inn and landed on it on 01 March. There are also other legends.

Martenica can be removed at the first sight of a stork, a swallow, a cuckoo or a flowering tree.

Once upon a time I visited an office in Spain and gave Martenitsa to everyone I met. It was a small gift and a way to appreciate every single person in the office. People were excited and in a while the office started looking like bulgarian but not catalan office.

Multicultural businesses. For several years I tried to directly do some business in neighbouring countries, but apart from language there are so many little and bug cultural nuances so the only way to comply is to go trough partnerships. Well, if you are an established brand then it might be easier and probably you will have a huge queue of interested to represent you and do business with you. Being a small consulting company challenges ahead of me were different.

My strategy is share and care. Surely the path is with many ups and more downs but the key is persistence.

For several years we become partners of well known brands and corporations which presence in Southeast Europe and Turkey was not as solid as they wanted it. This gave us a chance to find a niche and face the challenges. Now we have a small network of partners that allow us to develop around.

Some very strange experience for western Europe people is variation in dates for Easter and the difference in dates could be up to one month. But christianity is not the only religion and you need to keep a close attention to these details.

What is your experience with doing business in multicultural environment? Comment and share!