About this blog

Here’s where we talk about the cultural aspects of doing business.  Over the years I have come to see that our students are pretty good at learning finance, accounting, and operations, etc.  but they may not be as good a understanding how to interact with people, especially internationally.

Another thing that I have observed over the years is that the corporate world does not limit itself to “language” areas.   There is no way that they can limit themselves to the French portions of the world, or the Spanish portions of the world.  If a given executive has experience in Paris, this person is a likely candidate to work in China.  Why, because of the demonstrated track record of being able to handle the unknown in a foreign country.  What this means is that the knowledge of a foreign language, like French in this example, is less transferable as a skill.  However, the knowledge of the cultural aspects of doing business internationally become more transferable.  That is not to say that it is the same to do business in France and China, but if one learns those principles in France, the learning curve in China will be shorter.

So, this blog is designed to help you learn about those cultural issues.  What you won’t see on this blog are statements like “Mexicans are this way and Canadians are that way.”  Instead, we’ll focus on principles, which when confronted in the real world, will help you to know how to react.

Anyone can make comments on the exisiting posts.  For students to become part of the blog (in order to make posts), follow these instructions:
1.    Go to http://wordpress.com
2.    Click on “Sign Up Now”
3.    Fill out the username, password, email address, and check the legal flotsam
4.    Check “Just a username, please”
5.    You will receive an email to activate your account.  Click on the appropriate link.
6.    When you get a confirmation of your new account, send me the email address that you used to activate your account and I will add you to the blog as a contributor.
7.    After that whenever you log on to wordpress.com it will list the kelmculture blog as one of yours and as a contributor you will be able to add posts (which pass through a filter for my approval).