U.S. and British negotiators found themselves at a standstill when American company proposed that they "table" particular key points. In U.S. "Tabling a motion" means to not discuss it, while same phrase in Great Britain means to "bring it to table for discussion."

In addition to interpersonal cross cultural gaffes, translation of documents, brochures, advertisements and signs also offers us some comical cross cultural blunders:

Kellogg had to rename its Bran Buds cereal in Sweden when it discovered that name roughly translated to "burned farmer."

When Pepsico advertised Pepsi in Taiwan with ad "Come Alive With Pepsi" they had no idea that it would be translated into Chinese as "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from dead."

American medical containers were distributed in Great Britain and caused quite a stir. The instructions to "Take off top and push in bottom," innocuous to Americans, had very strong sexual connotations to British.

In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated name into "Schweppes Toilet Water."

In a Belgrade hotel elevator: To move cabin, push button for wishing floor. If cabin should enter more persons, each one should press a number of wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by national order.

In a Yugoslavian hotel: The flattening of underwear with pleasure is job of chambermaid.

In a Bangkok dry cleaner's: Drop your trousers here for best results.

In an East African newspaper: A new swimming pool is rapidly taking shape since contractors have thrown in bulk of their workers.

Detour sign in Kyushi, Japan: Stop--Drive sideways.

At a Budapest zoo: Please do not feed animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to guard on duty.

In conclusion, poor cross cultural awareness has many consequences, some serious others comical. It is imperative that in global economy cross cultural awareness is seen a necessary investment to avoid such blunders as we have seen above.

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In America, where only about 20% of major public companies split roles despite that 86% of executives polled by Christian & Timbers believed that roles should be split, returns were 4% lower in companies with a separate chairman and CEO.

One of reasons they gave for higher returns in companies with same CEO and chairman was once board commits to arranging itself that way, they focus less on constant watchdog evaluation of that individual than making him or her successful.

They also pointed out that CEO-chairman might be able to withstand pressure better, especially when short-term changes don’t pay off, than non-CEO chairman.

Thirdly, they attribute surprising results to lack of authority on CEO’s behalf. “Clearly, a CEO who is not a chairman is board’s hired hand; a chief who is also chairman has far more influence over other directors,” they noted.

According to an article in business journal McKinsey Quarterly, Americans tends to view role of chairman with less respect than that of CEO, especially in companies where roles are split.

Therefore, they should consider remarketing job of chairman as a more respected career path, as it is in British companies, where 95% of companies have separate people occupying roles of CEO and chairman. The remarketing could then function as a way of restoring trust and confidence in increasingly corrupted corporate American landscape.

Regardless of whether CEO is chairman of board or not, there is no way company can be successful unless directors dedicate themselves to helping CEO and other upper-management sustain a superior level of performance.

Jessica Klein is a member of the 'Mount Real Research Team', whose aim is to seek out and distribute business information to the virtual public. She is a freelance writer based in Montreal, Canada who loves writing about anything from accounting to zebras.