2 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Full of mistakes - Swedish exampleWednesday, March 02, 2005
This book is a complete joke. It was recently ridiculed in a Swedish business weekly for its description of Sweden. According to the book's authors:
1. The indigenous population in the north of the country are called lapps. The expression sami is somewhat derogatory. In fact it's the opposite! This is as if a European guide book on doing business in the US suggested their readers use the word "negro" instead of "african-american." Also, the Sami number some 20,000 persons, not really vital information if you are visiting a country of 9 million people. Moreover, comparing them to American indians or Australian aborigines is somewhat misleading, the non-sami population groups began to settle what is today Sweden sometime 2000 BC.
2. According to the book English is spoken in the major cities but if they plan to do business outside of the urban centres, they should speak German! This may have been true fifty years ago. A visiting US business person would should definately stick to English, German (with a US accent as well, I presume) will not get you very far.
In short, this book seems as if it's been written based on what the authors could find from a quick scan on the internet.
2. Most people in Sweden speak English.
1 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Essential for any international business personMonday, June 28, 2004
At first glance, you might think that a book that offers advice on business protocol in 60 countries would be superficial in its advice on each one. But this is a great "read" and browsing from country to country can emphasize the key cultural differences when you are visiting just one country. There's even a section on the US, and it's good to learn that we are almost the only country in the world where strangers get straight down to business (Ever asked a visitor:"How was your flight?" then realized you didn't even listen to the answer before launching into business.)
This book contains both the important practical matters (bring a gift, wrap it in certain colors, don't expect it to be opened in front of you) and also some interesting academic issues: "Locus of control" and "sources of anxiety reduction." You'll be pleased to know that Americans don't worry about anxiety much--except about deadlines at work.
1 out of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Country-surfing can hurtThursday, January 15, 2004
Not a bad idea, but this kind of superficial info can hurt you as much as it can help you - maybe a regional focus would be good?
2 out of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Essential book if you work with people from other CountriesThursday, October 30, 2003
Fantastic book, I've been referring to this for nearly 10 years now since it first came out. Working as I do with many different cultures, and given the track record of my American Colleagues who don't know where Canada is (joke!) I've always found it ironic that it was an American team who wrote this book!
Anyone who is ever sceptical about the value of its content, I show them the pages for their Country, and within minutes they're sold on its value, even if there's something minor in there they can quibble about.
I especially rely on this book for the Business Practices (Appointments, Negotiating & Entertaining) and the Protocol (Greetings) sections.
I've worked in over 30 Countries, and this book has never let me down. The only times I've needed a Country that wasn't in the book was for Austria & Croatia, but you can't have everything!
14 out of 22 people found the following review helpful:
Misleading and impreciseMonday, October 22, 2001
When I bought this book, I wished to have a concise and reliable guide for "do's" and "don'ts" around the world. Well, at least I got a concise one.
I've been in some 20 countries and for most of them, the suggestions of this book would range from useless to misleading. Data about religion, for instance, seem to have been collected from old books, when the Latin America people could be classified as 97% Catholic.
Suggestions about dressing is also outated, with recommendations like 3-piece suites.
The greetings are also outdated: despite not being American, I know that currently, in USA, women (especially the 30-something and under) use to kiss each other in informal occasions, but this is not even mentioned.
And, as a Brazilian, I became marvelled to know that some people in Brazil speak "various Amerindian languages". The book only fails to tell me where ...
An advice: instead of buying this book, ask some friends: is costless and far more trustable.