Blog #10: Marketing Aborad

                  One of the things I’m most excited about when I think about my future career are the opportunities that I will have to travel. I think being able to travel to foreign countries for business would be really fun because you get the opportunity to experience the culture and daily life through the eyes of the working class. One of the scary aspects to me, however, would be the culture shock. How do you know what that people of that country consider good etiquette? What are topics that they would consider unapproachable?

                  The chapter that we discussed this week in my marketing class was about international business and the different ways companies are successful when they enter into the foreign market. One of the research librarians came in to talk to our class about the different resources that the library at Saint Mikes has to research international business.

Probably the coolest resource to me was called Global Road Warrior. Using this website, you can look up any country from a list of dozens. Global Road Warrior comes back and tells you pretty much everything you could possibly want to know about this country, such as things like their education system, recipes, music, and ways of transportation.

There is also a pretty interesting tab that talks about the business culture in the country. The information discussed here would be extremely helpful when traveling internationally for business. Some of the information given here discusses the country’s business experience, decision-making and negotiating strategies, meetings, attire, women in the workplace, and the workweek.

Playing around on this website, I decided to look into what business is like in Australia. It is correct business etiquette in Australia to greet someone with a firm handshake, and from then out refer to them as “mate”. Australians don’t use professional titles such as “Professor” or “Doctor” because they are deemed as showing an excessive amount of honor, and rarely use the titles Mr. of Mrs. in the workplace as well.

While Australians tend to dress similarly to Americans and Western Europeans, there are still some striking differences when it comes to business attire. Workplace dress in very modest, and therefore women keep their attire modest, often times not even bothering to put on makeup. For men, it is acceptable to wear slacks and button down shirts, and suits only on formal occasions. Australians are also extremely casual and tend to dress down for events such as an opera or theater event.

Knowing the business etiquette about a country you will be traveling to beforehand is very beneficial. Instances where you are unsure of how to dress, act, or what to say can be detrimental to a business deal. Being prepared for situations where you are unsure in essential, and Global Road Warrior is an extremely useful tool in these circumstances.