World over, I believe, business never happens between organizations but between
people. The time and investment it takes, for organizations and people to forge these relationships and
develop the trust and compatibility to enter into a business transaction, varies though.
In the APAC region where the external ramification of
business and relationships are most inter-twined, one region stands out in its
external rendering - Australia. Though a cursory observation would make one
feel that it is most easy to build a relationship and trust in these markets,
the reality is different. The ‘ostentatious’ or rather loud mannerism of
a typical Aussie is a welcome change in the APAC market compared to his
introvert peers. A typical meeting with the most stranger too starts in an
interesting manner,
mostly with conversations centered around the traffic he had to circumvent to reach the meeting place, the weather
that day or a courtesy query about how I felt about being in Australia. As the
meetings progress discussions around wine, wineries, food takes more precedence
to the intended topic of discussion, which again is very welcoming.
A typical non-Aussie could very easily mistake this to be a
great starter and fast paced move from a relationship point of view ( I was one
of them) - it is not. The time and investment needed to develop trust from such
conversations is much higher
than one would expect. Building a layer of relationship on top of
that is even tougher - yes, the relationship layer is on top of trust
while in many markets and
business cultures like in
Japan the trust layer is on top of relationship.
It is quite normal to have a meeting scheduled over lunch
extent to coffee to beer, which means nothing the first time. However if it recurs there is a subtle layer
of trust that is being built whose premise is based on ‘mutual value’. Over time it can move to relationships, and
relationships bring big businesses. This is unlike many other markets like Japan where relationships brings small
businesses to start with,
and then tests your patience,
while your capability to deliver is evaluated - and then big businesses follow later as an
indicator of large relationships.
Interesting, is this world of Asia - from Australia to Japan
where there is a pattern of not having a pattern!
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