Cultural Differences Simulation

Manager’s Hot Seat

Case 8: Cultural Differences: Let’s Break a Deal

The Meeting

M: Nice to finally meet you

N: How do you do?

M: Please have a seat, how was your trip?

N: Oh very good

M: When did you get in?

N: Oh, it was this morning, so about six hours

M: Great, great, long flight though obviously for Tokyo

N: Oh yes, it takes about fourteen hours to get here

M: I have been talking to Roger, who I know you have been working with very closely on this deal for awhile now and I’m just here to kind of wrap things up with you. So if everything is ok we actually would love to actually excuse the contract

N: Roger really like sushi

M: Yeah, again I know, again I know form Roger’s reports

N: He loves sea cucumber

M: Sea cucumber?

N: Sea cucumber

M: Sea cucumber, well that sounds like an exotic a dish

N: Never had it before?

M: Ah no, no, no I haven’t

N: Really?

M: Yeah, I’m more of a tuna and salmon sushi eater

N: Never had seafood before?

M: No, no I haven’t

N: How bout fresh water eel

M: Fresh water eel, oh that’s a little foreign for my taste

N: You like salt

M: Yeah I love salt

N: You like salt water, salt, salt water eel better?

M: No, I kind of like avoid the whole eel thing as it is

N: You do

M: But listen, we are really, really busy here

N: You don’t like eels do you?

M: You know I don’t know if Roger has explained

N: Excuse me

M: I’m sorry go ahead

N: You don’t like eels

M: I, I, I like them to…. No, no I don’t

M: Anyways

N: That’s fine

M: I have spoken to Roger and for what I understand that we are very excited about the pop, the pop account

N: May I ask what happened to Roger

M: Roger is still with the company

N: He is?

M: Absolutely, we are having an internal reorganization

N: What is he doing?

M: He is working on other accounts, in other areas of the company, kind of making things more efficient

N: Do you know why?

M: Yeah, we decided that I would be better suited on these foreign accounts and he would be better suited doing more of the national stuff

N: Oh really

M: Yeah, yeah so again if we could just get the ball rolling her, just execute this contract. Just sing right at the bottom

N: ahhhhh

M: Right there

N: Please forgive me but I don’t feel we are quite ready to sign a contract with you

M: Oh ok, what’s the problem, just tell me

N: No there is no problem

M: Ok so that what are you, why are you being hesitant about signing the contract that has already been negotiated

N: I’m not hesitant

M: Well you’re not signing the contract

M: I don’t mean to be confrontational about this, this is like you know, this is just from what I understand the last part of the deal. Which was going to be you coming here and signing the contract and we get the ball rolling and we can start

S: Excuse me Michelle your next appointment is waiting

M: Just hang on about two minutes I will be right with him

M: I apologize again for this brief meeting, I wish we had more time this time but we certainly, next time I will allocate enough time so that we can really get to know each other and we can talk about pop wear and mustang jeans and really get the ball rolling. Does that sound good? Ok well thank you for your time

Three days later

M: Norio it’s nice to see you again. Hope you had a good week here in New York

N: Oh yes, thank you

M: Good, good

N: Had a very good week

M: Listen, the first thing I want to say is I want to apologize for last weeks meeting, I wasn’t prepared. The company what we did switching from Roger to me wasn’t fair to you. I want to assure you that working with us and going forward will be much for of a smoother transition

N: Thank you

M: We would love for you to be representing our line of Mustang jeans in the Japanese’s market and we are really looking forward to a great and long relationship with you. That being said I think we can safely go over the terms you and Roger worked out last time, um is this what you guys agreed upon

N: Your price is very good

M: Thank you, thank you, we do pride ourselves in having a quality product at a reasonable price

N: You know I have been meeting with a, some other companies

M: Ok

N: In the past week…. In the mean time, we can still keep the good relationship between your and us

M: mmhhmmm

M: Well I would like that but I’m a little confused as to what you are trying to say here. You know I’m American you got to kind of come out and tell me what you’re a talking about here

N: I’m talking about that I have met some of the people and we talked

M: Ok, you were here in New York I didn’t expect this to be the only meeting you had while you where here obviously. What do we have to do to make this deal go forward today? Cause I will add one thing. After today this offer no longer applies. How does that make you feel?

N: I see, I understand

M: You understand?

N: I understand yes

M: Ok, so does that mean that you want to go forward today? See my concern also is that we are having a little of a communication gap here, are you understanding?

N: oh no, I don’t think we have any communication problem or anything

M: Great, we are really excited about this, we have promotions planned, we have trips planned to Japan

N: Yeah that’s right you told me you were coming to Japan

M: Yes

N: That great

M: Yes and you are going to take me to dinner. Roger and I will take you to dinner to your favourite restaurant, you pick it

N: That would be great

M: Excellent, excellent, so what about you a signing the contract today

N: Well unfortunately my plane leaves this afternoon, in a few hours

M: Ok

N: And I have to start heading to the airport

M: Well that’s no problem

N: I’m sure we will have a very good business in the future and we will ply golf together in Tokyo and we can have great food together

M: Well absolutely, absolutely

N: We will have a wonderful time together

M: I’m sure we will have a great time

N: Yes

M: Getting back to the contract, just for a second, just for one second. Um we would love you to sign the contract today. Would that be ….is that possible in any way?

N: I really don’t have much time. Thank you so much. It’s been such a pleasure seeing you again Mr. Sokolow …yes…Sokolow of course

M: A pleasure, have a great trip back, nice meeting you Norio

Afterthoughts

M: I didn’t really know how to act with his behaviour, which by the way I might add as well, was not very professional either. He wouldn’t even talk about the contract, or what the whole point of it was. He didn’t really give me a chance either. He came in here from second one. I think he came in here with the intent of not doing the deal. I wasn’t quite sure if it was a communication or a cultural difference. There was a lot he was not saying and I didn’t know if I was being dense and couldn’t really see what he was trying to say to me. I certainly tried to pick it up. I was under a time constraint so I felt pressured not to go off the subject, which obviously backfired. Knowing what we know about the Japanese market and the Japanese business practices, you don’t rush the relationship and it’s all about the relationship. I would let him come to me on his own time, when he was ready to speak about it. Maybe I was rushing it. The flipside is you know there is only 24 hours in a day. Maybe this guy isn’t for real, maybe there is no deal here and he just likes to talk about golf and ell. So you have to keep that in your mind as well. You know say, cut my losses.