Guest Commentary: Doing Business In America
After the incredibly aggressive election theater, one might think that the powerful in America have gone crazy and the protagonists have lost all form of decency, respect and communication skills. But, despite Donald Trump's election victory, America will calm down again, hopefully, as it does after every election. And then, very soon, it will be business as usual - because its favorite pastime is business, according to guest author Daniel Tschudy.
You may have had less of a desire to travel the land of opportunity for business this year, but you can't ignore the USA. And as soon as things return to normal mode, it's high time to think about how best to do business with the Americans - and ultimately succeed.
Years ago, the English author and thought leader Richard Lewis showed in his own analyses what business communication in the USA means. To put it bluntly, it's a fight and cut-throat competition, or to put it another way: Rugby pure and simple. With the pictogram below, Lewis explains the course of the 'exchange' of two interlocutors: from the initial contact, in the USA always very collegial with pats on the back and 'big smiles', into the fight, with provocations and sarcasm, if necessary humiliations and 'ridiculing'; up to the open exchange of blows. Just: "doing business in america". The nice thing is, and here the comparison to the rugby sport suggests itself, afterwards the world is all right again. People hug each other, congratulate each other on the successful "game" and go to the next pub for a beer.
The Wild West
Simply dismissing this as macho behavior does not properly reflect the situation. Because the rustic approach to solving the problem has much more to do with American identity than one sometimes thinks. It is true that Manhattan and large parts of California, among others, have long since conformed to a more inter-national code of conduct, but the United States of America otherwise still functions, with respect, as it did back in the Wild West. The cowboy mentality, a male thing of course, dominates day-to-day business. Big business, like everything else, must be conquered and overpowered. Large parts of America today still see themselves as world conquerors per se, even in national micro-projects.
What has been going on between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in recent months is grotesque from a non-American perspective; and probably for many Americans as well. Nevertheless, this emotional exchange cannot now be dismissed as a classic case study of communication in the USA. Even if many accompanying circumstances (the role of the media, the incredible budgets of the parties, the peculiar play of the FBI) can certainly be seen as 'typical America'.
There was a better example eight years ago, when Mitt Romney and Barack Obama fought each other in a much more civilized atmosphere. Back then, too, there was savage name-calling; back then, too, both pointed their fingers at each other and wanted to prove how unfit the other was for the presidency. But everything was done in much more style, and therefore probably more consumable than the 2016 election. In the end, the two shook hands. One congratulated Obama on his victory; the other congratulated Romney on a good fight. Both men, and probably quite seriously, respected each other and "had a beer together after the campaign." Almost literally, by the way, because Obama later invited Mitt Romney to the White House and even suggested that Romney, a Republican, work for him. How seriously that was meant can be left open. But the 2008 campaign was a better example of how people in America still do business today. Direct and confronting, then finding solutions by consensus. Win-win for both parties is perfectly acceptable, but the fight for one's own interests must come first in order to be able to conclude successfully.
No go easy
Europeans and Asians still have a hard time with this mentality in their sales and acquisition efforts. And yet they still send representatives who are "unsuitable" in terms of type and appearance. Because 'Corporate America' does not want soft-talkers, but tough & rough-movers. Intellectual approaches are less in demand than a robust rugby style: with the oval ball across the middle. It is therefore somehow understandable that large parts of US business are closer to Donald Trump than to Hillary Clinton.
So, off to America, but please with the sales people and the right tools to match the market.
To the author:
Daniel Tschudy lectures, coaches and writes about intercultural values and behavior patterns (cultural intelligence) in the global business environment. His focus is among others on the new markets in Africa and Asia; with special interest in China & Japan.
