Relationship building and dress during business communication

Relationship Building

In many countries, business will not proceed unless the local business executive is happy with the relationship they have established with you. Consequently, in countries such as Japan, business will proceed slowly until a satisfactory relationship is established. Do not expect one trip to be enough to complete a deal in such instances. A relationship can mean many things, but generally the local company/people need to feel you are:

· trustworthy,

· competent,

· you and your business are reliable,

· you have a regard to quality,

· prepared to accommodate the differences in culture,

· understanding about the way business proceeds locally, and finally,

· the type of person eg. socially, they would be happy about establishing a long term business deal with.

It is essential to realise that profit, although essential, is not the sole criteria in establishing a business deal in some countries. Conversely, in other countries, business can be based solely on the profit motive and consideration about whether they like you or not, is not necessary for doing business. In our next article we will reveal some more aspects involved in improving your probability of success when doing business overseas.

Dress

Wherever you are, your clothing should always be clean, well pressed, tidy and preferably in a style that fits into the local culture. This does not necessarily mean you wear traditional clothes, but clothes that will make your host feel comfortable.

What to wear? This varies between countries and also within some countries. In the cities of mainland China, western style suits are common. However, wearing expensive clothing and expensive jewellery will often be regarded as being ostentatious and pressing home the differences in lifestyle and wealth between China and your country. This is particularly so in the rural areas. Conversely, in the rich region of Hong Kong, a tailored business dress would be highly regarded. Women need to be particularly careful about the use of high heel shoes and low cut dresses.

In Muslim and the rural areas of many countries, such clothes are not encouraged. Wearing such clothes can embarrass your host and can often result in a lot of staring that although harmless, can nevertheless be quite disturbing.