The Culture Map : Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures

Summary: Whether you work in a home office or abroad, business success in our ever more globalized and virtual world requires the skills to navigate through cultural differences and decode cultures foreign to your own. Renowned expert Erin Meyer is your guide through this subtle, sometimes treacherous terrain where people from starkly different backgrounds are expected to work harmoniously together.When you have Americans who precede anything negative with three nice comments; French, Dutch, Israelis, and Germans who get straight to the point (“your presentation was simply awful”); Latin Americans and Asians who are steeped in hierarchy; Scandinavians who think the best boss is just one of the crowd—the result can be, well, sometimes interesting, even funny, but often disastrous.Even with English as a global language, it’s easy to fall into cultural traps that endanger careers and sink deals when, say, a Brazilian manager tries to fathom how his Chinese suppliers really get things done, or an American team leader tries to get a handle on the intra-team dynamics between his Russian and Indian team members.In The Culture Map, Erin Meyer provides a field-tested model for decoding how cultural differences impact international business. She combines a smart analytical framework with practical, actionable advice for succeeding in a global world.Erin Meyer is a professor at INSEAD, one of the world’s leading international business schools. Her work focuses on how the world’s most successful global leaders navigate the complexities of cultural differences in a multicultural environment. Living and working in Africa, Europe, and the United States prompted Meyer’s study of the communication patterns and business systems of different parts of the world. Her framework allows international executives to pinpoint their leadership preferences, and compare their methods to the management styles of other cultures. Her work has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Singapore Business Times, and Forbes.com. In 2013 Erin was selected by the Thinkers50 Radar list as one of the world’s up-and-coming business thinkers. She is the recipient of the 2015 Thinkers50 RADAR Award. Follow her on Twitter: @ErinMeyerINSEAD An international business expert helps you understand and navigate cultural differences in this insightful and practical guide, perfect for both your work and personal life. Americans precede anything negative with three nice comments; French, Dutch, Israelis, and Germans get straight to the point; Latin Americans and Asians are steeped in hierarchy; Scandinavians think the best boss is just one of the crowd. It's no surprise that when they try and talk to each other, chaos breaks out. In The Culture Map, INSEAD professor Erin Meyer is your guide through this subtle, sometimes treacherous terrain in which people from starkly different backgrounds are expected to work harmoniously together. She provides a field-tested model for decoding how cultural differences impact international business, and combines a smart analytical framework with practical, actionable advice. Strong, steady sales of the hardcover. Now in its fifth reprint, the pace of sale has been steadily growing month by month. People working in international business have been learning about the book over time, as its quickly become a definitive resource in its field.Strong reviews for the hardcover include Foreign Affairs: "Abounds with well-chosen anecdotes ... enlightening ... a pleasure to read." HR Magazine: "Skillfully blends real-life examples with an analytical framework." Kirkus Reviews: Important reading for those engaged in internal business." Financial Times: The linguistic gaps that remain widespread and widely ignored make it worth looking at an amusing new book called The Culture Map." Author has a wide-range of media experience and reaches a broad audience: Erin Meyer blogs frequently on HBR.org, and Forbes.com. She contributes columns to Inc.com and CNN.com. HSe has appeared on WNYC's "Leonard Lopate," CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS," and BloombergTV "Suveillance." She frequently speaks at major companies, international institutions, and universities.Quotes:"Erin Meyer provides us with a brilliant guide to what all business leaders need to know right now: How to succeed in managing across the diverse cultural contexts of today's workplace!"—Marshall Goldsmith, author of the New York Times and global bestseller What Got You Here Won't Get You There"Whether you are sitting at a desk in Boston or eating at a restaurant in Beijing, communicating across cultures is the great challenge of the global economy. Getting it right will be the difference between success and failure. Erin Meyer has written a very important book. Managers everywhere should read it." —Des Dearlove and Stuart Crainer, founders of the Thinkers50"Whether you're a corporate or traditional diplomat, global traveler, government official, or passionate world citizen, this is the one book you should not miss. Chock-full of real-world examples and a simple framework that can be utilized in any cross-cultural context, Meyer's work is characterized by a fresh and relevant voice, distilling down the essentials of communicating, persuading and working effectively around the globe. It is rare that I pick up a cross-cultural book and can't put it down."—Cari Guittard, Huffington Post"With business becoming ever global, there are a raft of books available on dealing with cultural differences. If you only read one, make it INSEAD professor Erin Meyer's...Skillfully blend[s] real-life examples...with an analytical framework... What brings this book to life are the numerous examples Meyer has encountered, both in her own life as an American living in Paris, and in her experience as running the Managing Virtual Teams module at INSEAD."—HR Magazine, 5 star review"The book abounds with well-chosen anecdotes to illustrate the misunderstandings that can arise from clashing cultural assumptions, making this enlightening book a pleasure to read."—Foreign Affairs"Amusing."—Financial Times"This readable book explains how to dramatically increase organisational success by improving our ability to understand the behaviour of colleagues, clients, and suppliers from different countries."—Professional Manager (UK)"A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures...Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business."—Kirkus Reviews"In a relaxed, entertaining, but always knowledgeable style, Meyer draws on numerous examples from her experiences to explain how to detect the invisible barriers in the global business world--and how to get past them."—Siemens Industry JournalAuthor Bio: Erin Meyer is a professor at INSEAD, one of the world's leading international business schools. Her work focuses on how the world's most successful global leaders navigate the complexities of cultural differences in a multicultural environment. Living and working in Africa, Europe, and the United States prompted Meyer's study of the communication patterns and business systems of different parts of the world. Her framework allows international executives to pinpoint their leadership preferences, and compare their methods to the management styles of other cultures. Her work has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Singapore Business Times, and Forbes.com. In 2013 Erin was selected by the Thinkers50 Radar list as one of the world's up-and-coming business thinkers. She is the recipient of the 2015 Thinkers50 RADAR Award. With Reed Hastings, she is the co-author of No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention. Follow her on Twitter: @ErinMeyerINSEAD