ENRON was an energy giant chosen as the Most Innovative Company in the world by Fortune Magazine for 6 consecutive years during 90's. It employed over 20.000 people and its annual revenue exceeded 111 billion USD. This legend lost its leadership with the Enron Scandal that hit the world in 2 December 2011. However Enron was unmatched for natural gas pipe laying business in the world. An experience of Enron Executives during 90’s in India showed the importance of the differences between debate traditions regarding diverse cultures. Enron executives were in India to sign a partnership agreement with Dabhol Energy Co. The company believed the talks advanced very fast which is not very common for Indian culture so they backed up from the deal since Dabhol executives and Indian public opinion believed their rights could not be sought after in such short period. Enron CEO Rebecca Mark was discussing something else: “We are always worried with time management because time is money for us!” We do negotiate in every part of our lives, even if we do not wish so. We do negotiate with a store salesperson, when we visit a bank even and with our family. These negotiations mostly occur undeliberate, spontaneously. What if you were to negotiate for a large corporation? You would not want to experience the same situation as Enron did in India, right? While negotiating with someone of a different culture, the most important rule of human relations becomes clearer: to easily understand each other. Of course we do not suggest to learn the language of the country you will do business with. At this point it is more important to share expressions to make each party more comfortable than to speak the same language. Sometimes a mimic or just a single word might mean a lot. Especially during negotiations in emerging countries where corporatization is rather lower benefiting from cultural gestures is the way to go. That is why we suggest you to firstly conduct a small research on the other party’s culture, language (if different) while you prepare for a negotiation. This method is also applied by TAV Executive Vice President Serkan Kaptan who says that they have a team in their enterprise to gather information on their partners’ countries’, cultural, political, economic and social aspects. This team compiles a report to share their findings with those who are involved in that business project and create an efficient environment of negotiation focused on respect. To summarize, one will benefit a lot from learning the other party’s culture, language, the meaning of their zamanıngestures and mimics when negotiating on a business deal. DINNERS AND RECEPTIONS Let’s begin with the Enron example: Shaking the head to both sides has a negative meaning in many cultures of the world including ours. However in Indian culture this will mean yes. Indian table manners are quite similar to ours, au contraire to Europe and US but as it is in Turkey, it is very rude in India to get up from the table as soon as the meal is finished. Yet, in many Asian and Middle American cultures it is very appropriate to leave the table as soon as the meal is finished. It is so that opposite behavior might mean that the food was less than enough. Pre-event behavior also differs from culture to culture. For example to be late to a dinner invitation for half an hour in the Mediterranean or Latin America is mostly acceptable. As a matter of fact, to be late to an event is out of tradition in Argentina. This situation can be acceptable in Turkey however is considered very rude in Germany or Switzerland. TIMING IS IMPORTANT! Another concept that leads to misunderstandings is “time” that has diverse understanding between cultures. While a North American or a German business man is very cautious of of being on time for meetings, for a Latin American, to be half an hour late can mean being on time. Europeans praises fast decisions but an Ethiopian believes that important decisions need to be taken slowly. A deal that can be completed in a day for you, can take up to 1 year to be applied in another culture because pressure might mean tricking that party. What you should do in these cases is to learn about how the other party sees timing. RELATIONS AND SINCERITY Religion has an important impact on politics, social behavior and business world in Saudi Arabia. Doing business becomes difficult for those who are not aware of this. On the other hand, sincere relations are also very important, the emphasis they give on eye contact creates the base to start a confidence based relationship. Similarly Indonesian culture requires to become friend while doing business. Distant relations are obstacles in front of a successful business relation. Sincere attitude, friendship, gestures and mimics you do show result in a similar way in Latina America countries as well. Emotions are hardly discrete in South American negotiations. Au contraire, in Far Eastern countries “poker face” is the way to go, sentiments are almost never shown. As for Europe, even though Japanese community leads the way of not showing emotions, Brits and Germans are very ungenerous of acting parmakwith or showing sentiments. Another remarkable aspect of Japanese culture is the “laughter” that is positioned in a very different place comparing to the other world cultures. In many countries as it is in Turkey, to raise laughter is perceived as a way to express happiness. For Japanese society that do not use gestures and mimics during negotiations, laughter is mostly a sign of bewilderment, insecurity or embarrassment. Don’t you find it interesting? GESTURES AND MIMICS Another interesting point of Japanese culture is their definition for hand gestures. For instance the circle that we make by touching our thumb with index finger means OK in many European countries but it is used to say “Let’s talk money” in Japan. French uses this to represent “zero”, they will understand this gesture as “worthless, bad”. France mostly has their own understanding of hand gestures compared to the rest of Europe. “1” is mostly signified with the thumb not the index finger. Expression using the thumb means “OK” in many countries. COMMON LANGUAGE In situations where both parties speak the same second language (e.g. English, Spanish, etc.) word selection shows difference between cultures. For example while the word “compromise” has a positive meaning for UK countries, it has a meaning similar to losing in US. When we observe African cultures, we see that words that can be offensive for women in most countries, are used to praise them: to comment that she has gained weight when you see a woman after a long time will mean that you have seen her very healthy. About speaking the same second language İDO and Souter Investments Chairman Brian Souter has an interesting approach. According to Souter, to speak the same second language brings many advantages to negotiation parties. As thought generally, high English proficiency does not mean high business competence. To find common grounds where experiences are shared and contact people through interpreters or different methods is much more important for Souter because it does remove the barriers to get together with the most talented people free from language barriers. MOMENTS OF SILENCE When discussing with people from diverse cultures, not only words make a difference but also the silent pauses. For example, silence between words within a sentence are kept short in North American and Arabic countries. To pause between words longer are seen as not being able to find the right words to speak or fatigue. However in Japan these pauses are to give opposite meaning to the word. For Scandinavians, the pauses do not mean anything. PRAISE BUSINESS ETHICS As a matter of fact, even though there are differences between cultures, business ethics are standard in every culture. If your partner believes in your business ethics and methods, they will not experience any concerns regarding doing business with you. While negotiating a deal, you need to be convincing and responsive and also bring your facts forefront. Words while negotiating are very important however what makes the difference between success and the failure depends on the trust you have given, the secret messages you understand and directing the other party whether you are Chinese, American or Brazilian. FLEXIBILITY Flexibility is one of the most important points of the subject. US, Europe and Mediterranean CEO of PSA, Akfen’s new partner in Mersin Port and also the harbor manager of many ports in Singapore, David Antonius underlines the importance of the experience they receive while managing naval networks of diverse countries and adds: “To be comply with anything that might arise is key for an international company that realizes long term investments. During our globalization process, we have seen that to be in a position of “rule making” and “oppressive” is pointless. It is very benefiting to take lessons from the richness of cultural discrepancies.”