Story of Sourcing-10: Cultural Understanding to foster international business growth

Over a weekend coffee meeting, John asked me. “Couchsurfing! Whats that?” And I was not surprised at his lack of awareness. “Oh dear, you don’t know about Couchsurfing?” I exclaimed! It was now time for some knowledge session. 

“Its a wonderful social networking platform where you make a detailed profile. And then locals invite travelers in their towns to stay in their home. Both will review each other’s profile. Based on references on their profile from their past hosting or guest experience, they will do a match making sort of homework. Both the host & guest get to know a lot about each other’s country, its people, challenges, preferences & lot more. Its a complimentary hospitable gesture to know each other’s culture & to spend time together.” Now it was John’s turn to be surprised. “Really! I never knew of this concept.”

But his next oblivious question didn’t surprise me. It has been asked ‘n’ number of time from people who don’t know me. “But what has this to do with you? You can very well afford any hotel. Why do you need this complimentary hosting?” 

I love to answer this question. I made him understand that its not at about complimentary hosting for me. I spend much more on such engagements then I will probably spend on a hotel room. Maybe it is a complimentary hosting platform for boot strap travelers saving few dollars. But for me, it’s different. I shared with him how this unique experience brings lot of value to my business. My Buying House activities involves lot of serious challenges like variance management in Indian factories. And to understand my overseas client needs. It teaches me how to be a trust worthy partner of my clients abroad. He was half way convinced. 

International Entrepreneur means a person who must have some key skills & can deal with various personalities he is going to get engaged with. This conversation provoked me to write an article on what skills are needed by an international entrepreneur to understand international client preferences. What are the tools available to become successful in managing international partners. 

Here are five pointers in this direction:

1. Patience:

The one key take away for me from Couchsurfing has been Patience. Most important skill to have when big money to manage in international transactions. Couchsurfers learn this key skill while they become host or guest. What to expect from someone unknown who has entered in our territory. How to react to situations or people when the meeting doesn’t turn out to be equal to our expectations. Or simply managing our behavior in someone’s presence. How not to become anxious just because we don’t know whats ahead. 

An interesting incident happened with me years ago in Couchsurfing which gave a life lesson to me on patience. A host in Europe accepted by emergency couch request. When I check his profile, it did not had many references. Hence with skeptical feelings, I went in the evening. I was literally scared because I didn’t know what to expect. Security was top in my mind. However staying over two days with him, all my fears were gone. He was really a warm host. Though he had a small house but hosted me with facilities out of his means. This gave me very a strong message. Not to be impatient and judgmental towards people we interact at international level based on color, status or perceptions. 

2. Open Minded:

I added this as second most important skill because the mind plays an important role when we are thousands of miles away and we have to deal with international partners. We loose our analysis power as we cannot feel or see the other party for very long duration. Which means we carry a perspective from one or two initial official meetings. Sometimes even not any meeting at all. All our actions stem out later in the transnational period of next 3-6 months based on those across the table brief formal meetings or just perceptions about people in that country/region. Hence its important to have an open mind to engage on possibilities we might have. And to work on managing crisis in case the situation out of hand. 

A recent visit by a new client into India was very surprising. He shared an interesting experience as soon as we finished the week long buying trip, going across three towns sourcing product after product, meeting all kind of factory owners of all kind of religions, etc. He was negatively biased towards one particular community and had so many perceptions about such people. However when he met these factory owners from that particular community and saw how we all were focused on business growth as partners, he had to change his mind set from a narrow thinking to openness. And he truly enjoyed the experience of diverse culture working together to achieve common goals. 

3. Respectful:

When we engage ourselves to deal with overseas partners, who come from different historical backgrounds, culture, mindset, life style, etc, we must be able to show respect for their social values and practices. We must remember that our business relationship is directly linked to our partner’s behavior pattern. And lack of respect between the two entities can break the trust. As trust comes only when we have respect for each other. 

At Couchsurfing, I was once hosted by a lesbian couple in Dallas. I went to their home carrying bundle of questions and belief system with me. However in the next four nights of staying together, we had hours of interaction. Interesting conversation with both the partners. And my thought process towards lesbians, gays & even the society who braces them with respect, changed completely. It brought lot of depth in understanding society preferences of a country where I do most of my international business. It also gave me immense knowledge on why we must not base our opinions in business based on gender, preferences and social values. Across my Couchsurfing journey, I have stayed literally with a wide variety of people. Penniless people, Hollywood acting family, a gay, a nudist, retired traveler, a Pastor, college boys gang, single women, single mother, and what not. This has taught me to embrace the clients from all walk of life without an element of surprise or question in my eyes. 

4. Cultural or Social Activities

The best way to understand the process & social values of international partners is to engage in cultural or social activities while we travel or attend local gatherings. Why to do it? 

By doing so, will will have the sense of belonging and get understanding about their culture. As international partners, this will enhance our skill sets to manage business deal. Its is a must needed resource to deal with challenges, situations and behavior of people when we sit across to manage variance. When I’m traveling in client countries, I  try attend a Church Mass, Mosques Prayers or events or celebration moments at Art Of Living or ISKON for getting to know about local people social values and it’s importance to them. Attending Super Bowl or Oktoberfest or local Marathon events also brings lot of understanding of cultural diversity and engagement of people who are customers of our customers. 

5. Travel: 

Before we risk big investments in business with international partners, one key action we must do is to travel to that region or country and get the feel of the place. All the above four traits will be helpful and will be better utility tools when we are at ground zero. Meaning applying above tools by traveling in target countries of our business. To have first hand experience of the situations and people is very important to make key decisions later in the transactions sitting in board rooms of our offices. 

I recently had a visit of my one year old customer from USA. They started buying last year and tasted the success from the products ordered after I made two trips to their office. Once they were confident that they can grow the business with India vendors, their first decision of this year was to hit ground zero. They had been visiting China for 30 years but never came to India. With two seasons of buying, they could easily see that there is lot of potential in India. And right away they announced to me about coming to India. And they had much more experience at hand now then they could have for managing negotiations or variances sitting in their office without any knowledge of how Indians work. 

All the above points mentioned will surely help you plan your sourcing trip best suited for your organisation. There can be several other ways to achieve it. I shared just few from my experience. 

And I will be posting more articles soon. Pls share subjects you want me to cover in my next article. Pls like, comment, share & send feedback. I love to hear back from audience. 

Thanks. Lokesh Parashar

President

Federation of Buying Agents

Director@Adkindia LLC(NY, USA)

Experience my Story of Sourcing Series at Linkedin and small videos on YouTube.

https://adkindia.me/

+1-234-525-2209