USA Cultural Awareness Training

USA Cultural Awareness Training

The USA remains the world’s largest and most powerful economy. The USA continues to dominate the global business landscape and is simply a market which cannot be ignored. Many of our clients have deeply embedded interests in the US and the ability to collaborate effectively in the country with colleagues, clients and other stakeholders is business critical.

Having said all that, many of our clients fall into the trap of assuming that they will not face and significant cultural challenges when working in the States. They couldn’t be more wrong. People are just as likely to encounter considerable cross-cultural challenges when working with the USA as they are when working with China or Saudi Arabia. Just as geographic proximity doesn’t equate to cultural proximity, having the same language doesn’t mean there aren’t significant cultural differences.

Global Business Culture runs USA cultural awareness training courses on a regular basis, and, in our experience, clients tend to have a variety of business interests in the States which roughly fall into the following categories:

Clients who have been acquired by a US parent company

The companies which have been acquired by a US parent company usually want to look at developing a greater level of understanding of the key business drivers of contacts back at their new HQ in the USA. They feel they need to be able to persuade and influence their parent company in a way which allows them to continue to develop their business in the way they feel is best for the business – they don’t want to be guided by people they feel might not fully understand their market.

Clients with supply chain interests in the USA

Many businesses rely heavily on supply chains which are embedded in the USA. The relationship in the US with these supply chain contacts therefore becomes critical for their business and people realise that a good understanding of the US business mindset can help them improve communication, interpersonal relations and process efficiencies.

Clients with subsidiaries in the USA

Many UK and European clients have long-standing US subsidiaries and they feel the need to better understand the mindset of their local US colleagues so that they can more effectively help them embrace common corporate culture and values. Getting buy-in to projects and new processes is not always easy and a greater awareness of the local ‘hot buttons’ can be enormously helpful.

Clients looking to develop the USA as a market for their goods or services

The potential of the US market is almost limitless, but the US is a well-developed and highly sophisticated business environment. Succeeding in the USA as a foreign entrant into the market is never easy – and there have been countless high-profile failures. If you want to succeed in the USA, you need to understand the local environment and you need to understand the US approach to business.