Reaping the Full Benefits of Foreign Investment Requires ICE-Q

The nature of a multinational company (MNC) is to invest capital in markets outside of the country in which it began its operations. Typically, this business activity is called foreign direct investment (FDI). For open economies to flourish, cross-border trade is essential. Another critical factor for successful international business is ICE-Q – a combination of three essential, durable skills: subject …

The One Goal You Can Set for a Positive 2022

Around the turn of the year magazines, news outlets, social networks, blogs, podcasts, and all sorts of other media are full with ideas and tips around making New Year’s resolutions. Some of you might be aware of the dirty little secret to this culturally motivated routine of making commitments to significant, meaningful, and lasting change: More often than not this …

Why Our Delight Should Matter to You

When you search for a consultant, a coach, or a trainer, you probably are not seeking mediocrity for your organization. Right? That’s why we’re delighted to share with you a distinction our founder recently earned from one of our partners: IOR Global Services named Christian Höferle Trainer of the Year – Excellence in Innovation! How is this relevant to me, you ask? Since …

Coaching with Cultural Competence for ICF’s International Coaching Week

Working with clients from around the globe, our trainer and coaching team is often confronted with people who don’t share the same cultural background as them. The relationships between a coach and their coachee develop quite differently when first languages aren’t the same or when the formative influences of culture are dissimilar. The International Coaching Federation recognizes this and offered …

women at the meeting

Why Cultural Intelligence is a Must-Have Power Skill for Global Business

Smart human resources professionals and savvy executive leaders know that if we want to be successful in increasingly diverse and global workplaces we need a set of power skills that too often aren’t taught in colleges, business schools, or as part of workforce development trainings. In an episode of Alchemizing HR — a webinar series hosted by HRCI, the premier …

We Make Global Business Skills Training a Public Enrollment Matter

Our clients want to get better at what they do. They want to succeed in global business. We give them a leg up. With our public enrollment courses. Throughout the year 2021 we are offering cross-cultural business trainings on various topics. Global business training turns your employees and executive team into more mature and skillful leaders who will have a …

training room

4 Reasons to Make Space for Intercultural Learning in Corporate Settings

A guest blog by Stephan Hild, originally published in German on his company blog. Effective intercultural business training can turn your employees and executive staff into more mature and considerate leaders who will have a significantly broader and deeper behavioral and cognitive repertoire when dealing with challenging situations in global business. Here’s what you’ll need and how it will pay …

What it Takes to Lead in a Multicultural, Multinational Environment

Despite the continuing trend towards more nationalistic and protectionist policies we have been seeing in many countries around the word, the interconnectedness and the interdependence of the global economy remains a reality. Cross-border business is likely to go on, no matter what the regulatory restrictions are. As a result, the need to develop leaders with a global mindset is unchanged. …

Making a Home Across the Atlantic and Back

Music industry executive Patrick Joest shares his experience of being a German-Argentinian Jew in different cultures For years he had been traveling back and forth for work between Germany and the United States. Dozens of times Patrick Joest had visited Los Angeles. When his company sent him and his family on an expatriate assignment to California, Patrick quickly realized there’s …

Why the Level of Your Global Success Depends on Your Cultural Intelligence

Are you “culture-wise”? How much effort does it take you to adjust your work style during business interactions which involve people outside of your home culture? There are many similar terms for this power skill: culture-wise, culture-savvy, intercultural readiness, […many more…] and cultural intelligence. You can, of course, work successfully at an international scale and never develop it, but you …

chaps cultures identity

Exploring Identity Through the Lens of Different Cultures

The week in review with Two Chaps – Many Cultures Hard to believe that our new live video format has already seen three weeks worth of broadcast. Two Chaps – Many Cultures has been very well received within our community and a wider audience. During the daily live sessions from July 20 to 24, the two chaps (Brett and Christian) and …

Two Chaps Many Cultures

Two Chaps – Many Cultures [episode 1]

Join Brett Parry and Christian Höferle as they explore the mysteries of human behavior. No holds barred. Only straight talk about culture, human potential, and personal growth. Streaming live where possible. Taking questions from you. Including colorful and diverse voices from various corners of the world.  This is their inaugural podcast episode. Join the two chaps for a dose of …

Two Chaps Many Cultures

Talking About Cultures – live online

Necessity is the mother of invention. In times of social contact restrictions and work from home the way we present our work has been changing. In our case we would like to think the Covid-19 pandemic has made us more creative. One of the avenues we use to reach our clients and our own industry is through live content. For …

Tim Mahoney culture

Tim Mahoney’s Success Recipe for Working Across Cultures? “Human Stories, Simply Told”

The automotive marketing maven tells his cross-cultural tales of selling Porsches, Chevys, Subarus, and VWs around the globe Selling a product requires understanding the needs and desires of your potential customer. You need to recognize what problems customer have and how your product can be a solution to that problem. Sales and Marketing are professional tasks that are difficult enough …

Malcolm Ohanwe Christian Höferle

A Conversation about Identity, “Race,” White Blindspots, and Apfelschorle

How Malcolm Ohanwe shines light on inequality by nudging white folks to talk about it He works for one of Germany’s biggest public broadcasting companies, the Bayerische Rundfunk. The country today is as diverse as it has probably never been, yet when Malcolm Ohanwe stepped foot into the BR offices for the first time he “thought I entered Narnia. Everything’s …

Mexico United States Cultural Differences

What You should Know about Cultural Differences Between the U.S. and Mexico

As part of our Fall/Winter Webinar series we recently offered a joint session on the main cultural roadblocks between the United States and Mexico, together with our partners at Gea Cultura. During this webinar Salvador Rodríguez Gil Batista and Christian Höferle identified ways to establish robust and reliable bridges across the Rio Grande/Bravo. Watch the webinar recording here and learn …

The Culture Moment 45

The Culture Moment 45

A recent article on Harvard Business Review (HBR) asks: “Are You Sugarcoating Your Feedback Without Realizing It?“. Apparently, many employees want negative feedback to be delivered in a more candid way. It has been our experience that you best take that with a pinch of salt, if you work in a global context. Make sure you adjust your candor to …

Learning to Go 120 Miles Wide and 2 Inches Deep as a California Expat

Back from California’s beaches Martin Brem reflects on expat life He works for one of the most global businesses in one of the most global industries. Yet, when Martin Brem made a professional move from Central Europe to Southern California for the music business, his Red Bull wings didn’t fully prepare him for the cultural change he was about to …

expat insider 1 InterNations

The World Through Expat Eyes – The Good, The Bad, and The Challenges

Working outside of your comfort zone can be a challenge. Relocating to a new country for work can be taxing. Life as an expat typically means working in a different environment, with new colleagues, settling into a new area and making a new city home, and needing to establish a new social life. The insights from the latest InterNations expatriate …

The Culture Moment 43

Why do people call some of the most essential abilities “soft skills”? How can strengths like effective and impactful communication, the ability to relate and connect to people, adaptability, integrity, or cultural intelligence be seriously described as “soft” – as in “less relevant than hard”? How about we rather call these strengths Human Skills or People Skills? The term we …