Cultural differences and clarity in Mexico's business world
When U.S. executives are sent to Mexico, they soon hear that Mexicans are "indirect" and "will not give you a straight answer, "especially if what needs to be communicated is unpleasant." Thus, the gen...
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December holidays in Mexico: celebrating while cutting business costs
For companies doing business in Mexico, the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe on December 12th is a bigger celebration than Christmas Day. During these difficult economic times I have had many enquiries a...
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Questions on hiring in Mexico
Why do so many of my employees have the same names?
This is a question that I hear a lot. It can be a little confusing at first when it seems as if a lot of your employees share the same surname. It d...
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¡Ni Modo! - Commentary On Business In Mexico
When I was in college, national development was a hot topic. We pondered over why some countries develop their economies faster than others. One popular notion was that for countries to develop quickly...
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Building Trust
Like many other authors, I have often commented about the "trust" issue in business. According to author Francis Fukuyama, "trust" is a human capital that determines the way society develops business. ...
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You Owe Me One! Or the Concept of Favors in Mexico and in the U.S.A.
Favors are done in every culture, but how favors are given and received differs among cultures. Comparing the mainstream U.S. culture and Mexico regarding this issue, we find striking differences, whic...
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Pulling Together
These days it seems every company is adopting a team approach to doing business. While the concept is relatively new in the Western world, it is an old practice in Japan. But team-building, which requi...
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Meetings Halfway
A reality of any manager's life is attending and calling staff meetings. Another reality is that most managers complain staff meetings are a "waste of time."
When meetings involve Mexican and Ang...
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In The Dark
Anyone who has ever worked in Mexico realizes that one of the biggest differences between doing business in this country and its two Nafta partners concerns information. Whereas in the U.S. and Canada ...
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Double Standards
The topic of business ethics is one that too often ends up on the back burner, unless you happen to be a social activist. In business circles, the topic arouses as much interest as a turtle race.
...
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Eye Of The Beholder
More often than not, when foreigners simply refuse to engage in the human aspects of the working world, they tend to see the more negative aspect of the Mexican experience.
When I talk wit...
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Family Affair
Both friends and enemies of Nafta predicted the treaty would bring increased investment crossing national borders, and in the case of Mexico, a significant new presence of U.S and Canadian firms. This ...
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New And Unimproved
"The problem in Mexico is that workers, and generally speaking all people, resist change." This was the opinion expressed to me recently by a successful (at least, rich) entrepreneur in Mexico City. Be...
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Let's Get Physical
A key tool for understanding cultures is examining how people communicate with one another. The kind of topics people bring up in conversations often reflects the themes considered important by their c...
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Risky Business
As many of you know, there are a number of ways to approach risk analysis, but the dominant model in most MBA programs falls under the category of “rational” models. In these models, risk analysis ...
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Marketing A La Mexicana
I recently spent ten days in California working with one of my clients to develop marketing strategies that would reach the increasingly important Mexican (and overall Hispanic) market of this importan...
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Weirdos Welcome
I have argued before that discrimination in the workplace is not only ethically wrong, but inefficient for the organization, since great candidates are often not considered for hiring. More specificall...
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When In Rome ...
It is surprising how different norms on the proper greeting method in the business world affect people so strongly. This is especially true when we contrast U.S. and Mexican preferences. Some people wi...
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Power Play
Empowering employees in Mexico presents a different series of challenges than in the United States. Mexico’s hierarchical and authoritarian tradition makes it extremely difficult for managers to dele...
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Mexotic Products
To many outside Mexico, the country often seems "exotic." Described as "surreal," endless description about the inner soul of Mexico (the "
Mexico Profundo," or the "Deep Mexico"), complex, tradition...
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Increasing Equity
Discrimination is an important moral concern for all of us.
In the business world, the issue of discrimination goes beyond moral grounds. Although businesses’ main concern is profits, discrimin...
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Elections And Business In Mexico
Every time there are presidential elections in Mexico, there is a panic that the country is about to enter a new crisis. This is to a large extent based on past experience, so much so, that it is part ...
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About Number One
A common saying among professionals in the United States goes something like, "I've got to take care of number one, you know," usually when discussing a situation in which the speaker had clearly behav...
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Just The Facts Ma'am, Or Will My Hunch Do?
I get many inquiries from non-Mexicans interested in investing in or starting a new business in Mexico. The inquiries usually ask the normal "administrative" curiosities: What are the numbers for the i...
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Racism And Business In Mexico 2
In July, I wrote about racism and how this affects business in Mexico. The article provoked a
huge reaction. I got love mail and hate mail. This month I'll share some of the most thoughtful response...
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