Pitfalls And Business Abroad

Marianne Tarker sits behind a desk In her sky-lit office and tells a story that's all-too-familiar to her: An American businessman in London tried to get the attention of a hotel desk clerk. In a rush, he banged on the bell and frantically waved money in the air. To his surprise, no one responded. "It was as if " they didn't even hear me," he explained later.

"The problem wasn't that they couldn't hear you," Ms. Tarker said. "It was that they probably couldn't understand you."

Tarker probably says that a lot. She helps American professionals communicate with and understand other cultures. Along with her husband, the Polish-born Tarker founded a Business Academy, a school of applied professional education that offers a program in "Culture, customs, and language." Here, in United States executives learn about other cultures to aid them in their travels and business affairs.

As the global marketplace expands, this type of education is going to be increasingly necessary, says Tarker in an interview inside the academy's picturesque 19th-century farm house. Such schooling can be as simple as knowing the social do's and don'ts that may make or break business deals. A Swiss business tea is going to be different from an American power lunch. How should you act? What should you expect?

American executives start with a handicap: their reputationespecially in Europe. "There's a general expectation that Americans will be brash, loud, spend money, and won't really respect the individual," says Tarker.

Generally, Americans have maintained a certain arrogance about their country's superpower status. But now that US economic supremacy is no longer unquestioned, and American businessmen find themselves eye to eye with the competition, their haughty attitude is likely to change.