The Globalist Blog

Where’s the Diversity in Silicon Valley? While Silicon Valley is renown for cultural diversity and innovation – with the first fostering the second – its surprising how little ethnicity, race, and relationships across cultures are discussed, actively promoted, or even leveraged in the Bay Area. A unique committee at Watermark, the leading organization in the [...]

A Global Mindset is one of the most highly valued qualities employers look for today in potential candidates. But what does that mean? Having a Global Mindset means: 1) You’re curious about the world 2) You’ve got experience living and/or working abroad 3) You speak multiple languages 4) You’re flexible and adaptable in new situations [...]

A friend called me the other day to ask for my input to her book. She wanted to know what I’ve felt, experienced and observed about the culture of Silicon Valley since my arrival and set up of my business in cross cultural consulting here in 2008. It was an interesting question because I couldn’t [...]

An international expert has revealed that fewer than 20% of women are given international assignments or the opportunity to work across cultures in other countries in business, despite being well-equipped to handle the pressures of working abroad. Dr Tung dispelled three important myths many companies hold: * In fact, women do want overseas assignments * [...]

We recently found that employees based in Asia at a hi-tech firm were angered by U.S. headquarters approach to business, yet no-one said anything and therefore no-one knew until it was too late. Retention in Asia and in other parts of the world has become a serious cross cultural challenge and in today’s war for [...]

6 Powerful Questions You Need to Ask What do employees around the world really think? What motivates people to do a better job globally? Are you able to improve virtual teamwork? Are your worldwide processes and procedures ethnocentric? Why do people leave and go to a competitor? Is email communication pissing people off? Some employees [...]

Why should companies globalize their approach to diversity? A: Diversity is all about the people in an organization. The people that we work with today, whether it’s a local or international project, are from all different kinds of backgrounds. Our workforce is global whether we are working internationally or not. So we need to understand [...]

“I don’t hear anything from their side” is the number one complaint that individuals express when working in cross cultural, virtual and global teams. There are three forms of feedback that this article will deal with – that of general responsiveness (or lack there of), accolades or praise, and criticism (hopefully constructive). Feedback is a [...]

An egalitarian management style is widely known as one of the most important aspects to Swedish business culture. They seek consensus and managers are seen more as facilitators or coaches who offer advice and suggestions, not as the final authority. One result of this approach is that decisions can be hard to reach and the [...]

Gain a competitive advantage, increase profits, and improve your human footprint by developing a global mindset. Emerging economies are becoming a major channel for new customers and investors, as well as employees. To compete and differentiate themselves in varying and new environments companies and their workforce have to develop a global mindset. Cultural sensitivity and [...]