Industry Forecasting

I made it known early in my career that I was interested in an overseas assignment.  But it took a while for it to occur.  I eventually joined the group that exported vehicles within General Motors.  I worked there for six months before I was tapped to take my first business trip.  I was so excited…and then I found out I was going to New Jersey to the port to see vehicles ready for export to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.   To say that was a letdown would be an understatement!   Something I laugh about now!  

I will tell you that even that trip to New Jersey was interesting!  I had no idea the ‘homologation’ that took place to ready a vehicle to go overseas.  Homologation is a term that means that it must meet the requirements of the selling country.  So for example, in Europe their headlamps and outside rear view mirrors have different requirements that demanded retrofit before the vehicle landed in Europe.    I remember walking around the port where the vehicles were staged to be shipped on ocean liners and reading where they were going to and the specific homologated parts that were put on the vehicles to meet country specific requirements.  Interesting!  I still remember an armored plated vehicle going to Bosnia.

I lived in Japan, specifically, in Tokyo from 1999-2001 as the Director for Marketing for General Motors Japan’s corporate offices.  As I review Figure 3.1 I am reminded of ‘time’ is looked at in Japan in the office place.  In our Detroit offices, our days start at 7:30 to 8:00 a.m. typically.  In our Japan’s office we started at 9:00 a.m.   I liked that – but on the other hand our days ended in Detroit typically anytime from 5:30 to 6:00 p.m.   But in Japan it would not be untypical to go to 8:00 or 9:00 p.m.     And if I had a conference call with Detroit, I might be walking out the door at 1:00 a.m.      A challenge with global business and different time zones!

In Japan, meetings started on time as they did in our Detroit office.  Employees arriving late were known for bad behavior – poor office etiquette.   

I remember working with a Brazilian executive, Sergio.   He would tell me that in Brazil if you were invited over for dinner on Saturday night and told to arrive at 7:00 p.m. and then if you arrived at 11:00 p.m. there was no problem.  You were welcomed with open arms.   In the United States we allow 15-30 minutes for a late arrive and expect an apology and phone call if you are later – wouldn’t you agree?

To continue my story about Sergio, he fell in love and married a German woman.  A culture on the opposite end of the ‘time’ parameter for accepting a late arrival.   In fact, Sergio told a story of meeting his in-laws for the first time.  He flew in to Germany to meet his future in-laws and got a bit lost trying to find the restaurant that they were meeting at.  He was five minutes late.   At Sergio’s 25th wedding anniversary his in-laws were still telling the story about their ‘late’ future son-in-laws arrival!   If this was a United States of America in-law story – it would have probably not even been remembered or thought much of at the time.  If this was a Brazilian in-law story, they probably would have reported their future son-in-law being very early for the first meeting!  

One of my favorite authors in regard to some of these culture specifics is Edward T. Hall a cultural anthropologist.  He wrote The Silent Language, The Hidden Dimension, and many more books on culture.  I think you would find his work fascinating!