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0:00
Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening,
depending on when you're listening, of course.
This is a short talk about how cultural differences impact a multinational business.
I'll first introduce a bit about myself,
then I'll make a quick introduction about culture and then
I will get to the company and what I actually did in this particular case study.
So, a bit about myself.
0:22
I have 12 years of airline experience.
I always say I was born in the airlines.
I wasn't a trolley dolly, as they say, or steward or stewardess.
No, I've been a consultant-
marketing and sales consultant for that period of time at the airlines, as well.
In total, I have 20 years of experience in
international consulting and part of that is about culture and cultural differences.
In terms of educational background,
I'm not an official academic.
I mean, I have an academic title;
I'm an organizational psychologist.
I studied in Amsterdam and that's why I've been
practicing, as well as organizational psychology and working with organizations.
I'm a senior consultant for a company called Culture Matters;
I write and do research on the topic.
I currently have four books available online.
I lived a year in the States when I was a lot younger.
I'm originally from Amsterdam,
the Netherlands but I currently live and work in Belgium-
that's close to Brussels-
and Belgium is the adjacent country and the south of the Netherlands,
for those of you who are interested.
1:30
I usually start my presentations by comparing certain aspects of humor.
Then, we come to the general conclusion that
when it comes to humor, something as mundane as humor,
nothing seems to be culturally neutral.
Because what is funny in one country is not
funny or it doesn't seem to be funny in another country.
So, if something as 'every day' is already not culturally neutral,
my question to you is,
what do you think is culturally neutral?
I mean, think about this.
We eat, we drink, we sleep,
but what we eat, when we eat,
how we eat, even why we eat is culturally determined.
