As English is the world language of business, is it necessary for UK managers to

learn a foreign language and also foreign culture?

A key to being successful in business internationally is to understand the role of
culture in international business. Whatever sector you are operating in, cultural
differences will have a direct impact on your profitability. Improving your level of
knowledge of international cultural difference in business can aid in building
international competencies as well as enabling you to gain a competitive advantage.
However, on the one hand where it is important to be aware of cultural differences of
different countries, on the other, it is also hard to be aware of every single aspect of
each countrys organisational culture. Therefore, you should be aware of the key
factors that have a direct impact on business. These are:
Being aware of basic customer needs is an important aspect as this will give

the advantage of conveying your message. In simple terms, if you are aware of the
customers cultural background, then you will be able to adopt better and more
suitable advertising methods.
Before launching a marketing campaign, always conduct research to become

aware of your target audience since customer demand, decision making, gender
views and ideologies greatly vary in cultures.

The influence of the different cultures in the global business world is essential for building
successful International Relations. This issue is based on the new global business perspectives and
what is important to consider in developing an International Business plan. Companies have the
challenge of presenting and expanding into new horizons, and it is really important to fully
understand those new markets that the company is planning to expand in.

Nowadays, a companys business dealings are increasingly more international, and the need for
effective cross-cultural communication has become essential: knowing a foreign culture is a longterm process of assimilation, comprehension and integration and is undoubtedly the key to
successful business expansion globally.

Taking time to know the culture of the country in which you are going to be doing business with is
really important as it shows a sign of respect and it will be strongly appreciated; in fact, not doing

so will cause uncomfortable situations between companies (that could result in the failure of the
business.) So it is important to say that those who effectively respond to the culture and lifestyle of
the country where they plan to expand have more possibilities of developing successful businesses
than those who dont.

So, if you are going to start any business or negotiation with a different culture, be sure to
investigate and learn how one does business in that country, and, even more important, what one
should never do. What for your culture might be something of good taste, might be considered an
offense by other cultures.

1. Here are some more examples of business protocol in different countries:

2. In South America it is common to do business face to face.
3. In Russia, decisions have to be approved by several committees, which can make business
agreements take much longer.
4. In Japan, they have learnt the art of silence in negotiations and many times Americans are not used
to it and desperately think that something has gone wrong and feel pressure to close the
negotiation when it is not needed.

Each culture has a different social structure; some are more defined and closed than others, thus
being more difficult to establish business.

Another important aspect to be considered when expanding to a different country is the language,
the local expressions and the way they express themselves, Literal translations are not always
effective and can lead to misunderstandings, for example, when promoting or naming the products
that the company wants to launch in a different market.

This is why companies that want to expand need a specific localization, which is the modification
of a business, product, content, that can satisfy both the language and cultural differences of the
targeted market.

Business expansion internationally usually occurs through internal growth, mergers or acquisitions.
UK Managers should learn foreign language & culture if they want to be successful in international

business. During the past decade, technology, trade agreements, standardization, supply chain
management and innovation in operational & managerial practices have all influenced globalization.
Several medium and large organizations have globalized via organic & inorganic expansion. For
globalization firms go through close monitoring by stake holders. (Forbes, 2012) & (Ventures, 2013)
Although globalization has its advantages but it comes with some hurdles and barriers, among which
difference of cultures and coping up with differences to maintain harmony among business units
operating internationally is at the top of the list. (Hofstede, 1994) defined culture as a collective
programming of mind which distinguishes the members of one group of people/category from
another.

When an organization decides to globalize, then it cannot depend upon its current practices and
procedures of conducting business internationally, as every country has a set of different variables, for
instance, rules & regulation, currency, taxation, holidays etc that can be new for an offshore company.
Likewise, each organizations culture differs from other organization. Managers must know and
understand organizational culture for developing meaningful strategies that are beneficial for the
organization. Barney (1986) argued that organizations that value the importance of culture are able to
gain efficiency & competitive position. Every culture goes through cultural diffusion and the cultural
values that prove to be beneficial are adopted & integrated into different cultures via intelligent
selection, International organizations also seek to adopt & unify culture to lessen the friction between
different business units. The vitality of cultural understanding in successful international companies
can be seen from their marketing strategies that are based upon the cultures of target industries. On
the contrary an organization with weak or no understanding of target industrys local culture can make
blunders in developing marketing strategies, for instance, through designing inappropriate
advertisements that may offend people because of unacceptable content in their culture. Besides this
they may devise unattractive marketing strategies for consumers and may fail in the beginning,
among many relevant examples from past, one is showing an owl in an advertisement in India where
owl signifies bad luck. (Win Translation, 2014). As such, loss of consumers means loss of revenues
and profits and settlement pay-outs or fines in case the consumers file law suit against the company.

Another usual barrier is communication or language, as difference languages are a challenge for
international companies. However, it is managements responsibility to understand different cultures in
different countries and develop strategies accordingly.

Communication is the key to success for any business, whether you are operating
nationally or internationally, but when operating internationally it becomes even more
important due to language barriers. Passport to Trade 2.0 project aims to remove this
barrier by providing training materials in the languages of the country you are
operating.

Body language is another key factor in cultural difference. As different countries have
different ways to convey or share their message, for instance in Germany people
tend to speak loudly when sharing ideas, whereas in Japan people speak softly, it
very important to know what your body language should be doing when interacting
with people whether its your business partner or an interviewer.
(Korobkin R, 2000) mentioned in a study regarding international negotiations between organizations,
that besides technical proficiency, i.e., communication technique, that successful negotiations require,
they should also understand the context in which those negotiations were held, to secure profitable
contracts.

Cultural reasons
A new language opens up a whole new culture. A foreign language gives us access to
another culture, and our lives take on a new dimension. The great German poet, Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe, said in 1827: "Whoever is not acquainted with foreign languages
knows nothing of his own." Seen like that, learning a language is almost comparable to a
journey of discovery - and if we remember the great explorers and the 18th century
gentleman's grand tour, you might almost call it a British invention.
Conversely, to lose a language is to lose a whole culture. This realisation has led to
determined efforts to preserve minority languages, including, for example, in Britain, with the
renaissance of the Welsh and Gaelic languages. There are similar widespread efforts in
Britain to promote community languages, for example by providing application forms in Urdu
or other languages. It is a fundamental truth that cultures define themselves through
languages.
Economic reasons
The typical profile expected from future business leaders fully reflects the demands of the
globalised world. British language graduates find a good job more easily than others.
Knowledge of German in particular improves one's chances on the job market. Many
German companies abroad, and many foreign companies in Germany and companies with
close links to German-speaking countries look for employees with language skills.
In spite of all the current economic difficulties in Germany, we are now, thanks to the
Government's reform policies, well on the way to overcoming our economic weakness.
Germany is still the most important trading partner for almost all the European countries and
many countries outside Europe. A person who speaks German will be able to communicate
better with business partners in the world's third-biggest economy and one of the foremost
exporting countries.
Languages are the bedrock of the worlds cultural heritage. Every language
offers a rich and unique insight into different ways of thinking and living as well
as into the history of the myriad of cultures and peoples across the globe.

The language needs of UK business (Indicator 2) The second source of evidence

used in relation to the current language needs of business is the Confederation
of British Industrys 2013 Education and Skills Survey. 20 It reports that 70 per
cent of responding businesses value language skills among their employees,
particularly in helping to build relationships with clients, customers and suppliers.
From this report the top ten languages most in demand are shown in Chart 3. UK
government future trade priorities (Indicator 3) In its strategy for future
international business engagement, Trade and Investment for Growth, 21 the UK
government stresses the continuing importance of trade with existing partners
including the EU, mentioning in particular Germany, France and Benelux, as well
as the Nordic and Baltic countries. But it also mentions India, Brazil, South Korea,
Mexico, the Gulf States, South Africa, Turkey and Indonesia. In part this adds
further weight to German, French, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish and Arabic which
have already been mentioned above, but it also introduces some new languages
into the mix: Portuguese, Korean, Turkish and Indonesian as well as the
languages of India and South Africa. All these languages have been treated
equally and not put into any rank order.

Emerging high growth markets (Indicator 4) Evidence was used from the joint
CBI/ Ernst & Young publication Winning Overseas, 22 which is explicit about the
need for better language skills in order to improve the UKs export potential. It
calls for a more strategic approach in order to target high-growth markets in less
developed countries, citing not only the so-called BRIC(S) countries but also the
Next 11 identified by Goldman Sachs and the 25 high growth markets set out
by Ernst & Young. Combining the Next 11 and 25 high growth markets
produces the list of countries and associated languages shown in Table 4. This
listing introduces a number of languages not yet mentioned, as well as giving
further weight to some of those already identified. Spanish and Arabic score
particularly highly on this indicator. Making predictions for future economic
importance can be precarious, and political events may intervene to change
expectations, as can be seen in Egypt, in the time since this analysis was
undertaken by the CBI and its partners. For this reason a range of sources has
been used for this research to balance the score.

There is no denying the importance of English as a common means of

communication across the world, or its strength as the first foreign language of
choice for most non-Anglophone countries.
But David Graddols 2006 analysis of global language trends was a timely
warning against complacency regarding the predominance of English worldwide.
3 He predicted that the competitive advantage of English will ebb and that
monolingual English speakers, unable to tap into the multilingual environments
enjoyed by others, would face a bleak economic future. Studies for the European

Commission have shown that the economic benefits of competence in more than
one language are not limited to English
4 A wide range of languages are needed to exploit the benefits of the single
market and keep improving trade between peoples worldwide. Even when others
have a high level of proficiency in English, this does not mean that their
languages can be ignored. In order to develop relations between countries and
individuals based on mutual respect and trust as well as to do business
effectively, there is a need for an understanding of the social, political, and
technical systems of a country, as well as the innumerable aspects of daily life
that are important to that nations identity and culture
Business benefits Six Arabic speaking countries appear among the UKs top 50
export market in goods, with a combined value to the economy of over 12
billion in 2012 more than the value of UK exports to Spain, China or Italy.47 The
Gulf economies are booming as they diversify away from oil and gas, open up
their economies and bring down barriers to trade and investment. Significant
opportunities exist for British companies, particularly in supporting the vast
infrastructure work planned in the region. Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United
Arab Emirates have all been identified by the Confederation of British Industry as
priority markets.48 This is endorsed by the Department for Business, Innovation
and Skills

Language aids in information gathering and evaluation.

Language provides access to local society.
Language capability is increasingly important in company
communications.
Language provides more than the ability to communicate because it
extends beyond mechanics to the interpretation of contexts that may
influence business operations.
Language can be divided into: verbal and non-verbal
Cultural theories provide a powerful conceptual frame for analysing and
explaining international variations in communication and marketing practices.
While care needs to be taken to avoid overly deterministic links between such
theoretical perspectives and actual manifestations of marketing within national
or regional settings, which denies the significance of enterprise autonomy and
independent corporate strategies, complementarities exist in the predictions
of cultural theories.

Conclusion:
This essay considers the impact of culture on international business
through various different angles. 21st century is dubbed as the century of
globalization where trade and other barriers have been put down either
willingly to support business or unwillingly after notwithstanding the wave
of technological advancement. Flow of information is more than ever,
markets are approachable and the company with the right product will
always want to cater as many consumers as possible. This is where the
problem starts.
As an organisation moves into a region with different culture it faces many
hurdles such as different language, norms and beliefs, tastes and
preferences etc., if the organisation does not align itself with the prevailing
culture then it cannot reap benefits of expansion. It was observed that
effective cross cultural communication can only happen it the context of
communication is understood. In the case of expansion method, it was
observed that although it is beneficial for companies to acquire subsidiaries
in order to understand the culture from on-going operations rather than
setting up entirely new units. The later however, is still more favored.
The importance of cultural understanding with regards to marketing
strategy was analysed and it was found that culturally incompatible
marketing can backfire and damage an organisations reputation in many
ways.
Based on the literature reviewed and the analysis made, it can be safely
assumed that managers who do not understand other culture have a high
probability of failure in the case of operating in other cultures.