Hurdles to Cross Cultural Business Communication

Written by Neil Payne


Continued from page 1

Foreign Languages

These days, offices may have native speakers of over 50 languages all under one roof. It is important thatrepparttar main language ofrepparttar 104059 office is established, whether it be English, French or Spanish. Once this is constituted all employees should only converse inrepparttar 104060 main language. This avoids exclusion of staff who can not understand other languages. In addition, a company should ensure that all its employees are fully conversant inrepparttar 104061 main language. Language tuition should be seen as a necessity not a luxury.

Culture

International businesses with a highly diverse workforce in terms of nationality and cultural background face challenges fromrepparttar 104062 differences in language, values, belief systems, business ethics, business practices, behaviour, etiquette and expectations.

Cross cultural differences can negatively impact a business in a variety of ways, whether in team cohesion or in staff productivity. As we have seen above, different methods of communication are just one area in which cross cultural differences are manifested.

In such multicultural companies, objective help may be needed through a cross cultural consultant who will show teams and individuals how to manage communication and work together more cohesively and productively.

Company Culture

Company culture pertains torepparttar 104063 internal culture of a company in terms of how it is managed. For example, doesrepparttar 104064 company view its different departments such as sales, production, administration and HR as closed or open systems? A closed system is one in which a total lack of synergy exists between a sales and production department due torepparttar 104065 structure and communication lines betweenrepparttar 104066 two. A consequence of such compartmentalization is that managers of departments have a tendency to become territorial. It is vital that team work, team building and team spirit are encouraged in order to create open systems.

Such measures are especially valid in joint ventures and mergers whereby co-operation between two or more companies requires their total commitment to an open system.

Understandably many companies are primarily focused onrepparttar 104067 financial and strategic side of company operations. International businesses are now realising that many of their business problems have roots in man-management and communication.

In summary, we can conclude thatrepparttar 104068 biggest hurdle to effective cross cultural communication is a reluctance to invest inrepparttar 104069 expertise and resources needed to overcomerepparttar 104070 problems as outlined above. Cross cultural hurdles are easily negotiable with some objective and well-qualified assistance.

© Kwintessential Ltd

Neil Payne is Director of London based cross cultural communications consultancy http://www.kwintessential.co.uk


Software Companies: Generate new revenue streams and decrease costs with custom e-Learning content

Written by Synapse SE


Continued from page 1

To do this,repparttar software company needs to look at how they plan to deliverrepparttar 104058 online training to their end-user customers. They will want to make sure thatrepparttar 104059 end-user customers can track and managerepparttar 104060 online training portion of their sessions, whether it is self-paced custom e-Learning content or real-time online trainer/student collaboration. Selecting this delivery platform can be difficult but it should includerepparttar 104061 following basic functions:

1.Student Knowledge Assessments 2.Student Success and Progress Tracking 3.Real-Time Interactivity 4.Self-Paced Learning Delivery

By selecting a delivery platform that addresses all four of these facets of end-user customer training,repparttar 104062 mid-sized software company can not only decrease their own costs but enhance their client/vendor relationship by delivering more than what is normally expected or experienced in today’s software market. What’srepparttar 104063 bottom line? The customer is pleased with their user’s performance andrepparttar 104064 value they received fromrepparttar 104065 software company.

Step 2: Creating Revenue Using Custom e-Learning Content

Now that we have lowered our costs,repparttar 104066 company needs to look at how they can use their new learning technology to generate new revenue streams for their organization.

Take this scenario: The mid-sized intranet portal software company used inrepparttar 104067 scenario above now has their own proprietary basic end-user e-Learning module to cover 1 day’s worth of what was previously onsite training. The company has effectively reduced their overall, offline training costs. Now it is looking for ways to generate new revenue streams using this technology to (a) make back their initial purchase costs and to (b) create more profit potential forrepparttar 104068 entire organization.

Creatingrepparttar 104069 revenue: One way for a mid-sized software company, such asrepparttar 104070 one we’re using in our example, to create this much needed revenue stream is to create subsequent, more advanced, self-paced, custom e-Learning training modules. Attractively priced, these learning modules could be made available to their end-user customers online without incurring any additional offline training costs.

In order to do this efficiently and without incurring additional offline training costs,repparttar 104071 company needs to make it easy forrepparttar 104072 end-user customer to purchaserepparttar 104073 more advanced training content and make it easy forrepparttar 104074 end-user customer to track their own learners as they attendrepparttar 104075 training courses so they can readily see its effectiveness. By investingrepparttar 104076 money today to buildrepparttar 104077 more advanced, custom e-Learning content, this mid-sized software company could realize profits fromrepparttar 104078 training modules within 12 to 24 months once they begin marketing and selling it to their existing client base. Such profits would be dependent on development timeframes, how they market their new training service and their chosen modes of delivery.

Taking it one step further: Makingrepparttar 104079 more advanced e-Learning content convincing and attractive to purchase fromrepparttar 104080 client standpoint takes some ingenuity. People are very susceptible to purchasing something that is located right next torepparttar 104081 checkout lane at Target. Similarly, it stands to reason that client of this mid-sized software company will be more apt to purchase additional e-Learning content if it is readily available to them and if they can purchase it without any hassle.

One way to accomplish this is to publishrepparttar 104082 new, more advanced, self-paced e-Learning modules torepparttar 104083 company’s LMS portal and then makerepparttar 104084 modules available for purchase via credit card using e-Commerce or via standard invoice with a single phone call. This essentially acts asrepparttar 104085 product stands we all see at Target next torepparttar 104086 checkout lane. Since everyone needs to pass through checkout lane, it makes sense to put additional products available for purchase there. In other words, ifrepparttar 104087 mid-sized software company is delivering portions of their beginner training program online to their end-user customers, this more advanced e-Learning content should be available for purchase right next to those basic training modules, thus, increasing its visibility and increasingrepparttar 104088 attractiveness to buy fromrepparttar 104089 client perspective.

The Completed Solution

Because ofrepparttar 104090 tight software market andrepparttar 104091 strain put on mid-sized software companies to perform, if these companies can decreaserepparttar 104092 costs associated with their current training programs and create new revenue streams atrepparttar 104093 same time, it becomes a win/win situation both forrepparttar 104094 vendor and forrepparttar 104095 customer. The software company gains a competitive edge and continues to move forward whilerepparttar 104096 client gains an easy-to-engage training program and added value from their software vendor.

Synapse SE Staff Contributor

Synapse SE, www.synapse-se.com, is a provider of technology staffing/consulting and online training solutions for mid to large-scale corporations. The company delivers targeted staffing and learning services that help businesses reduce the costs and risks associated with maintaining a technology-centric organization and that help improve communication and processes across the business.


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