In 1982, a British Airways plane flew through a cloud of volcanic ash over Indonesia and lost power to its engines. The British pilot, Eric Moody, calmly informed the passengers: “Good evening again ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain here. We have a small problem in that all four engines have failed. We’re doing

Li Shen, a young Chinese manager who eagerly accepted a job as a marketing manager for L’Oreal after doing her MBA in Europe found herself working at the company’s Shanghai office. Her excellent command of English and acceptable French gave her confidence when dealing with her European colleagues. She didn’t feel there was a cultural

Do you trust with your head or with your heart? There is a big difference between cultures when it comes to building trust, and not understanding that can put a business relationship in peril. Karl Morel, an acquisitions expert from Nestlé, found himself in a challenging situation when he was negotiating a joint venture in

When I first moved to Europe, my new Swedish boss, Per Engman, introduced himself as a typical consensus-building manager. Conscious of my American roots, he explained that this was the best way to ensure that everyone was on board and he hoped that I would be patient with this very Swedish process. I was initially