You may have seen it -- an email circulates and tells you Switzerland ranks No. 3 in the world when it comes to gun ownership. The email goes on to tell everyone that gun ownership is the reason Switzerland remains safe and stable. The email implies that without its guns,...

As the year draws to an end, I am contemplating the biggest obstacles my clients have had and the root cause of their failures in the international arena. Interestingly, several cases can be linked to the cultural misconception that time must be accounted for in a similar fashion internationally rather...

The debate on foreign policy in the final presidential debate left me numb; the world is in full ebullition, but pertinent topics were unfortunately left off the table. President Obama, however, alluded at the fact that the United States is leading a coalition effort to provide economic stability to the...

For most entrepreneurs business is all about ebb and flow. As I look back and consider my consulting clients for the past six months, I realize that among the companies that seek out my expertise, social entrepreneurs are becoming more and more numerous. The differences between my corporate and my...

By now we've all heard of global social entrepreneurship and how important it is for companies to do their shares to contribute to building a better world. By now we have also realized that too many companies have joined the social entrepreneurship platform to redeem a damaged image and prove...

I had an incredible weekend last week. I wish I would have been able to write about it sooner, but it took me a full week to digest my experience. It was SO rich.

It all started with an invitation: "We have this Peace Conference happening in your...

When I started lecturing on the science of managing across cultures at different universities, I began receiving phone calls and emails from students asking lots of different questions related to their potential future in international business. The question I receive the most often is: would you recommend that I enroll...

Wal-Mart is making the headlines with the FCPA corruption case it faces in Mexico. But anyone who has been on the ground trying to close business in countries such as Mexico, India, China, Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria and so forth knows corruption is a way of life.

Corruption is so...

It is true that when it comes to international business and cultural intelligence, I specialize in pointing out what our nation tends to do wrong. Today will be different, ladies and gentlemen. Today, we will take a ride on the positive side of things because I was fed a lot...

On April 16, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Possten announced that two Chinese competitors have considered Vestas, a large wind turbine manufacturer headquartered in Sweden, for acquisition. Upon reception of the news, Vestas' shares, listed on the NASDAQ, rose by 9.3 percent.

A few minutes earlier, Alan Weiss, a consulting guru,...

Not a week goes by without reading about a natural disaster, a coup d'état, a kidnapping, a plane crash, or a terrorist attack. We less often hear about infectious diseases such as malaria or dengue fever, or road and work accidents that take the lives of employees while abroad.

Perhaps it's due to the fact that my home base is located on the West Coast of the United States, at the mouth of the Pacific Rim, but I noticed in dealing with new and aspiring exporters that most of them want to sell their products/services to the People's Republic...

Virtual interactions have gained a lot of traction in the past five years, and nowadays companies heavily rely on them to communicate internally with employees scattered all around the world. Some even use virtual communication in an attempt to forge international relationships when venturing into a new region. Virtual interactions...

President Obama said it again in his State of the Union Address: the National Export Initiative is still high on the administration's agenda. While this is great news, I wish more would be done to equip new exporters toward best international business practices. In the international arena, everything differs from...

It's very common in the United States for companies to entrust management of their international department to someone who knows how to manage money. More often than not, that person has no international business experience and as such does not understand what type of expenses are necessary for international sales...

For American companies of all sizes, 2012 will be remembered as the year that forced them to enter the international chase for market shares. While this should be perceived as a positive action, I foresee a problem that too many of my clients can't pinpoint: their lack of international reflex.