IT´S NOT PERSONAL IT`S STRICTLY BUSINESS

           It`s lunch time in Finland and you are in the middle of a negotiation, but the Finnish negotiators order a coffee and you think “what`s going on?”, you get scared and don`t know what to do… 

But the truth is that the negotiation is going well, nothing to worry about. The fact is that Americans and northern Europeans may order food when a negotiation is taking place, this is a clear indicator that they are taking the matter seriously. In other words, it`s lunch time and they don`t want to interrupt the process.

            On the other hand, if you are in Spain, Italy or Greece and in the middle of a negotiation they offer you to go for lunch to a restaurant then that`s a good sign. For southern Europeans food and drink appear higher in their value system; going to a restaurant is an indication of seriousness and at the same time and indicator of opportunity to take the discussion to a higher level. 

FACT: wining and dining are more important the further south one goes in Europe, this doesn`t mean that they like to eat a lot, it`s just a matter of different concepts of the role of personal relationships during a business relationship.

In Northern Europe and even with more frequency in North America it`s possible to enter an office of a complete stranger and start to talk about business. In other words, A business relationship is seen as independent from a personal relationship. This means that personal relationships are taking out from the business. Now you know where the famous phrase "IT´S NOT PERSONAL, IT`S STRICTLY BUSINESS"comes from.

            Now let`s go east. In eastern countries it`s not only important but essential to have a strong personal relationship before any business can occur. Many of the resources that big companies use in eastern countries (with this I mean Japan and not Turkey!) are designated to search for personal matters of the business partner they are about to start negotiating with; and the aim of this research is to know if they are good people to do business with. You will need introductions, references and time to develop personal relationships before getting down to business!.

              Northerns find difficult to understand not only the importance of personal relationships but also their nature, this doesn`t mean that they don`t get well along with each others, trust and confidence are very important factors to them… it`s just that the essential element of a business personal relationship for them is the mutual personal obligation that the negotiation will create amongst them.

              People in ‘relationship cultures’ grow up in networks of mutual obligation, starting with family and extending to religious affiliation, school and university, home town or region, intake into the company or common work experience. They are enhanced and enlarged by favours, gift-giving, hospitality and other intangible exchanges. There is an expectation that people bound by such ties are bound to give first preference to each other in whatever social or business context they interact in. To people outside these cultures this sounds like nepotism and cronyism, even corruption. To those inside them it is the foundation of social and business organization. 

So… as Tom Hanks says in “You`ve got mail”, the Godfather has the answer to everything:

To be continued... ;)