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Women Entrepreneurs and Leaders with Christine Gouchault, author of Business Mum

Christine Gouchault

How can female entrepreneurs manage their businesses and their families at the same time? How do companies sell to many nationalities with the same product or service? Denmark-based Christine Gouchault, the author of Business Mum [“Business Mom” for Americans] and a major sales director and coach, explains how non-subsidized women are usually more successful, and shows sales methods for various countries and communication styles for multinational teams.

Highlights:

How to succeed as a business owner while raising a family.

Finding the balance between family and business.

Denmark campaigns for female-led companies

Communication styles across cultures

Working in India and China

The personal introduction to European business

How to determine if you are ready to expand

Christine Gouchault bio:

Christine Gouchault has led and grown sales organizations in global companies and scale-ups and has over 15 years’ of experience in human resources, sales, and leadership. In 2018, she built an inside US and EU sales team for ChemoMetec, specializing in automated cell counters, and during Covid turned around the company’s sales in the EU that grew by 57%. She has held other positions including owning a recruitment agency in Paris, and most recently with MasterCard overseeing their customer success processes within the Open Banking sector.

Perhaps more importantly, she has created a community for self-employed women in Denmark. Christine is the author of “Business Mum” where she gives concise advice to women on how to succeed as business owners while raising their families. Christine holds a Master’s degree in communication and is a certified business coach. She lives in Denmark north of Copenhagen with her French husband and their four kids and speaks at least seven languages.

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Full Transcript

Hello everyone. Since today’s guest comes from Denmark, I thought it would be appropriate to start with a sign in a Copenhagen airline ticket office … which had a very reassuring message in English that said, “We take your bags and send them in all directions.” Just as one would want when flying with an airline like that. 

Today’s guest is Christine Gouchault. Christine has led and grown sales organizations in global companies and scale-ups and has over 15 years’ experience with human resources, sales, and leadership. 

In 2018, she built an inside US and EU sales team for Chemet Tech. She specialized in automated cell counters, and during COVID, she turned around the company’s sales in the EU, which grew by 57 percent. She has held other positions, including owning a recruitment agency in Paris and most recently with MasterCard, where she oversaw their customer success processes within the open banking sector. 

Perhaps more importantly, Christine has created a community for self-employed women in Denmark. She is the author of Business Mum [“Business Mom” in American English] in which she gives concise advice to women on how to succeed as business owners while raising their families. 

Christine holds a master’s degree in communications and is a certified business coach. She lives in Denmark, north of Copenhagen, with her French husband and their four kids, and speaks at least seven languages. 

Welcome, Christine. We’re glad you could join us today. 

Thank you, and thank you for inviting me. You just made me laugh with your little information about the airport sending the luggage in different directions. 

I think it is so interesting. You know, companies make these signs, and it seems obvious that they are correct, but when you read them again, you obviously recognize the mistake

Yeah, I remember I lived in Copenhagen in this big building where we obviously had an elevator. And there are a lot of foreigners living there, but I was wondering what they thought when they used the elevator because, when it was moving, it said “moving” in Danish. But in English, it translates to I fart.  

And what does it mean in Danish? 

“Moving” this is it.  

Yeah, it’s moving. It’s going up or going down, so yeah.  

Oh, that’s so interesting. I think IKEA, you know, the Swedish furniture company, imported a kind of cart to the United States, and I think it had two levels with wheels on the bottom. They used the Danish or Swedish name for it, and it was something again like I fart. And that did not quite translate properly into English. So when they realized that, I guess they changed the name, but it always impresses me how very large companies think that they know what they’re doing in international business, and they make some very simple mistakes that no one seems to catch. And they look like idiots, frankly. And it never ceases to amaze me that the larger the companies, the less humble and arrogant their behavior. They just think they know it all and don’t bother to check anything. It’s native to the area, so that’s very interesting. 

You’ve written a book called Business Mum, which, by the way, is called Business Mom in American English and is about how to succeed as a business owner while raising a family. I know this is a cause that is very dear to you, and I’m wondering if you could give us some major points that you present in the book. 

So, I’ll give you the four most important. The first one is that actually what I wanted to get through when writing this book is that everyone can do it. It’s a matter of being resourceful rather than having resources. So how to use your circumstances to your own advantage, rather than thinking that you need something, in particular, to go ahead and do it, and the way I’ve illustrated that in my book is they always say show, don’t tell. 

So, I invited or interviewed ten different Danish business women on how they built their businesses while raising a family and took ten very different examples. So one was really young and like eight months pregnant. And going for weekly funding and asking for millions, another one started her business when she was 45 and had five kids. Some of them have been single moms, divorced, or have parents that work a lot. But just to say so, it doesn’t matter what education you have or if you’re married, or if whatever. It’s more about how you use the situation you’re in, and you use your own strength to succeed. That will make you succeed. 

So that’s like the key. I’d say the key message of the book. But then I build it into three major areas that you need to master to succeed. The first one is your mindset. Because owning your own business and being an entrepreneur is like a really emotional roller coaster and a really intense growth journey. 

So mastering your mindset and knowing how to handle all the ups and downs is really big. And otherwise, that would be a big blocker for you, if you can’t handle setbacks and have a positive view and look for other opportunities. 

The second thing in the book is about strategy and mainly sales because most people can get a good idea. They might even execute it to some extent on it, but if you don’t sell and get customers it’s not a business. 

So, take that part very seriously also. Because a lot of people don’t have a lot of money to put into their business when they start, so you need to be more focused on how you get the first customers, how you get some kind of cash flow, and then go from there. 

And then the third part, that relates to everyone, is how you work efficiently and run your business. And have a family without burnout and stress, but organize yourself in a way that works for you so that you can still build your business. They feel that if you do it the right way, it has so many advantages of being your own boss because you can actually decide when you work, how you work. 

So instead of your business being a copy-paste of what you might know from corporate life you go do it in your way and here I think the pandemic has worked wonders because now we’re more open to remote work and doing things differently. So at least if you’re running a business, it’s made life in many ways a lot easier, and you can use that to your advantage as well.  

That’s fascinating and very true. And I assume part of the flexibility is, for example, attending your kids’ sports matches. Being your own boss or being a business owner allows you to take time off if you want to.

Yes, just picking your kids up from school or when… let’s say I had four kids, and when I had the twins, I thought, working in a normal way is going to be a nightmare. I knew that with one kid. With one baby, I didn’t get a lot of sleep, so maybe having two babies awake at different hours will make it difficult to go out and meet clients. 

And so, I restructure my business, I learned about online marketing, and I thought, OK, I can do webinars, newsletters, and Facebook ads, and then I’ll do online coaching, at least until I get my sleep back. But I could kind of pivot my business a bit so that it would work for me, and use the new tools that weren’t available with online marketing that we didn’t have maybe 20 years ago, but then we had ten years ago. 

Yeah, that’s very true. very wise. I presume that running a business and raising children at the same time is much easier when childcare is abundant and affordable, or if the families can afford to hire a nanny. I know a woman in this country, the United States, who I think has got seven or nine children. Some of them may be adopted. She always looks amazingly young and refreshed, and so forth. I assume she has a nanny because otherwise, it seems impossible. But how do you personally create this balance? And for single mothers, it must be extremely difficult. Or more difficult? 

So I’ll say yes or no. Obviously, it’s nice if childcare is abundant and affordable, but it’s not necessarily what’s going to make the difference in working, because what I’ve seen is, first of all…. so I started my first business in Paris. There wasn’t much childcare ,or anything I couldn’t get for a place for my son. My mother-in-law helped us out. 

And you, it’s a lot compared to the US where you have two months of maternity leave. But compared to the Scandinavian countries where you have a year or two, it seemed like very little. 

So I was just more, I say crazy about how I organized myself, and when we had the twins, what we actually did was that, my husband, because he felt like it, he stopped working. So he’s been a stay-at-home Dad for nine years now. And I’m the only one working. So we’re not getting any extra financial aid or anything. We just reorganize the way our family is set up. And the thing is, say for example, in Denmark, we have these really good maternity leave conditions if you’re working for a company, but not if you’re a business owner. 

So actually, if you’re a business owner, you have to close your company down to get help. This doesn’t make any sense because you know, as you’re in the business, you need to keep your pipeline warm and connect with your customers. So the help that we have for self-employed people and business owners in Denmark, and I think others can name countries, is not actually as impressive as you might think. 

So I don’t think that’s what makes it easier at all. And then the second thing that I’ve noticed is that often and also just compared, if you look at studies from different countries with women starting their own businesses, actually in a country like Denmark, we’re pretty comfortable. Social Security is very good. We have a lot of help, so why would you risk losing all of that by starting your own business when you have that? 

So it would need a lot for you to say,  I really want to start my own business because otherwise what you lose is too much and you go too much out of your comfort zone. Whereas other countries have a lot less help from the public; it’s an easier choice to make because they’re not losing anything. Actually, if they don’t do it, then their options are worse. 

So, you will sometimes see in developing countries where you might think they don’t have anything; nobody has a woman. The other option is prostitution or something, really… that you wouldn’t wish upon anyone… then obviously starting your own business becomes very compelling. The easy choice. So if you look at statistics, it seems like it’s more the other way around that if your current situation is not very nice and compelling, then you’re more motivated to start your own business whereas the other way around you’re not. So that surprised me because I would have had the same presumption as you before looking into that and seeing how it actually works.  

Yeah, that is fascinating and counterintuitive, but it makes a lot of sense, yeah.  

It is.  

In the United States, women-owned businesses get preferences and contracts from the government. Does the same exist in Europe? Does the EU give preference to women-owned businesses, or do individual countries give preference to women in business?  

No, unfortunately not. I mean, not any of the countries I know of. I mean that would be nice. And I would probably go there and start a business, but actually no. And also, I mean and I think it’s the same in a lot of countries when you look at VC funding, only 1.5% goes to female-owned businesses, which is really low. And so a lot of people, at least here in Denmark, have tried to raise attention to that. And this year, 2023 is the first year where the government has it on its agenda, not female business owners, but diversity in entrepreneurship. And they’ve set aside like 40 million U.S. dollars over a longer period. 

So I mean, 40 million from a country is not a lot to set aside for this purpose, but at least it’s on the agenda. So we’re moving forward.  But there’s really very little support for female business owners. And that’s also why back in the day, the community for Danish business owners and women because they felt like if you weren’t a man, they just wouldn’t take you seriously. And if you then at the same time said you had kids, they’re like, oh, that’s a hobby. That’s a project. Go take care of your family. And just like, no, that’s not true. I was just so frustrated with it. So, I just thought, OK, I’ll start my own if it doesn’t exist. 

And the crazy part of that is that studies have been made that showed that actually companies where a female is the founder performs like 63% better than all-male founding teams, and there’s been different of these research studies published in, say, for example, Forbes. So you can go search there. If not anywhere else on the Internet and otherwise or mixed founding companies. But it’s actually better than having just all males. So, the whole diversity is a very good investment. But for some reason, we’re still not very progressive in that part, and it’s still very male-dominated.  

Yeah, it’s very true and very interesting. And these statistics are shocking. No way to know.  

Yeah, very.  

 

But we have a nice campaign that just started recently here in Denmark. I think it’s some private organization, but they’re trying to promote the fact that actually female-led companies are the new blue oceans for investors to invest in. So, I’m trying to turn it into more of a positive.

So, it’s not like because you have just to do it for equality, but it’s actually good business. They give a better return on investment, but it’s also very good for a workplace with a more inclusive, nicer place to work. Obviously, I’m generalizing, so don’t hear me as saying that male-run companies are bad because I don’t want to have that on me. But just to say that there are many ways of doing things and we should have more diversity in that area.  

Yes, definitely. Out of curiosity, does the EU or do governments give preferences to minority-owned businesses or is it the same situation?  

It’s more or less the same, I think where you’ve seen a big change, unfortunately, but at least it’s good that they do. They try to help Ukrainian business owners, due to the war that started last year because obviously, they’re coming to all of the European countries, and we want to help them. And so, in that way, there are a lot of initiatives to help. At least in this time period your Ukrainian business owners help them get on their feet in the new countries that they migrate to.  

Well, that will certainly create a backlash, I’m sure, because if they’re helping Ukrainians, why are they not helping the Syrian and Afghan entrepreneurs who came before them?  

Yeah, but I think so. Unfortunately, they see themselves more in Ukrainian because of cultural similarities, and it’s true. 

Ukrainians, unlike the others, are Europeans.  

Sadly, I know that I have a friend of mine, a woman who’s French and lives here in Denmark, and her company. What she does is she helps foreigners get a bank account in Denmark so that they can start their own business. And she would help all the Syrians and Afghans and everything so that they can get approved just to have a bank account to start their own business here if they want to drive a taxi, Uber or have a restaurant or whatever and she helps them with that because there’s no government initiative. 

Very interesting. Speaking of businesses in general, during your career you’ve mainly been in Europe and building teams of many nationalities. What are some ways in which this is easy, and what difficulties have you faced, especially regarding communication styles across cultures?  

So if we start with the easy part obviously, most people speak English, so that helps that everybody can speak the same language to some extent. There’s also everything that’s come with Internet globalization and digitization that just makes it easier for everyone to work together and communicate across countries and have access to the same technology. Obviously, that’s a huge help compared to just ten or 20 years back, I think that helps a lot and a lot of the procedures. And that part of communication. 

But then what I’d say is difficult is probably more. I don’t know if it’s that difficult, but it’s the cultural differences that you need to take into consideration. So even though we speak the same language, we will interpret what’s being said in different ways. So, you need to be aware of that and probably communicate differently to different teams. 

So in one of the companies I was In, I was in charge of the European sales team. And even though overall the same strategy uses the same CRM going for the same customer, I would still work with them differently due to different cultures, both in the way that I communicated with them, but also in the way that we interacted with the customers in the different countries, just to adopt that approach.  

Could you give us some examples? 

So actually, one of the companies was … It was during COVID. I don’t know if that was very important, but at least that was a good time to see if we could do things differently since we had COVID and couldn’t work as we used to do and we found that for the UK market, it worked really well that they offered free product trading for all the customers because they had time and they would run these sessions and have all the clients come in and grow that way around. 

Whereas in the Scandinavian countries, I think because we’re small countries, we’re still pretty accessible by phone. And say it seems there would maybe just be on the phone calling the customers because, in Denmark and Scandinavia, you go to a company web page. You would have the phone number and e-mail of the CEO and all the other decision-makers. So, it’s just really easy to call, whereas in other countries, I don’t even bother picking up the phone, right? And then say in France, they were very efficient on social media and LinkedIn and generating leads that way. 

So, we just said, like really different approaches to what works even though it’s as I said, the same company, same target group of clients, and then obviously also the way communicated with the teams would be different just because sometimes you have a different sense of humor. And I noticed when they had just had a team with the Nordics team where obviously we’re probably quite similar and joke about stuff. And I continue that, that team, that same sense of humor with the UK team, and then suddenly just like. All quiet. Oh, moving on to the next topic. And you just realize, OK. Isn’t that the same? Not the same culture here, it’s not working. 

So there are definitely things that I mean, you notice that that thing was OK. The worst thing I think is if you’re not aware that you offend people unintentionally, I think that’s the worst if that happens, most other mistakes you can laugh about. And I think people today in global companies are pretty open and aware that we have differences, so they don’t think they take things too seriously in that manner. They would rather ask, OK, I don’t understand that or why do you say that and then give you a chance to explain. 

Because, you know, you say I was running the European sales team, we still had people from Colombia, Brazil, India, and China. So, it was still very international, even though we were only catering to European customers.

Then I would say another thing where you have the differences, at least in for example, in Denmark, we have a very flat hierarchy, and just like you have the 10 Commandments, we have something called Janteloven that’s very cultural, and that states that you shouldn’t believe that you are important or that you’re somebody special and you shouldn’t brag or whatever. And that just means that people are often very understated and more humble than what they say, and would always say that Americans are really exaggerating. And you would probably say the opposite about us because it’s just a cultural difference. In the US you’re more allowed to be proud and share your wins. Here, you kind of make an excuse for doing well. It was kind of by accident I didn’t mean to, but yeah, yeah, I’m happy. 

So, this is just like a difference in culture. It’s how you communicate it. And so in Denmark, everybody wants to be involved and make their own initiatives whereas you have other cultures also where they would expect that you’re more direct. Tell them to do step-by-step and a different kind of hierarchy, so also that you have to take into consideration depending on what culture you’re dealing with.  

Yeah, very interesting. Yes, the US is a very, I would say, braggadocious culture. I personally don’t like it because I’ve lived in Asia and elsewhere in the world and I had to adapt to it again when I returned. But yeah, here resumes and bios are very self-promoting. And when foreigners come here, they’re not used to that at all, and they have to be pulled in a way kicking and screaming to talk about their wins, talk about their achievements and so forth. And it’s culturally very difficult. I don’t like it myself. I read about myself and think oh, did I really do that? Is that me? 

And I guess it depends on what business you’re in, but I think if you want to be an entrepreneur and business owner, I think it’s good if you have a more American way because you need that. To you to be seen, to get noticed, to get through. I think those cases really. 

Helpful. Yeah.  

I know that you’ve dealt with India and you also worked with China. I assume the communication styles there are very different within the companies you’ve worked. How could you describe those?  

How could I describe it? But first of all, we obviously had different people to handle the different markets that would know the different cultures to make sure that they communicate correctly because what I often see is why you might have senior management. We think OK if everybody speaks English, why can’t we just copy-paste what we’re doing? But then if you go down into the details, there’s so much in the cultural way of behaving that you can’t, and that’s why we would hire people that would know a given market to handle it. And then adapt our communication in that way. 

And I think one of the things that was funny that I noticed in one of the companies before COVID was we did sales training and we would have everyone flown into the headquarters in Denmark. It was mainly for the European sales team, but then we had a colleague from India and we had a colleague from the US who were there and they were leading the different markets in sales. But then we all joined and thought we would do this together. It would just be fun to see what everybody else was doing and the purpose that they and we were doing,  kind of our place so someone was being the customer and then obviously salespeople, being salespeople, and see what would you say. 

And in Europe it was pretty similar to how they did things and the guy from the US would do somewhat the same, but as you said maybe bragging a bit more and being a bit more proud in his way of going about it.  

And then we came to the guy from India doing his presentation and it was just so different because he was so much more… Instead of asking questions and trying to find out what are your needs, and if you get that resolved, would you then do that? He was more like just telling them to do this, do this, do that, that, and being very giving directions in a way that we would never communicate. And you would just see the whole room go like – But you can’t communicate like that! And one of the women had to hold another one down because she just got up in her seat and was like, no, but you can’t do that. It’s like stopping.

It was Just so funny to see people’s spontaneous reactions because I don’t think anyone saw that coming. And they thought we knew each other well. We’re in the same office, but then they realized there are so many different ways of doing it. And I said I mean what he’s doing is not wrong. It would never work in Europe, but it works in India and Asia in general, and he was just killing it with the numbers. It was growing like crazy, and he was doing an amazing job. But for the Team and also for the guy in the US and just like, really sharp as can you do It like that. And it was just so funny to see and to have that discussion. Right or wrong as such, but you need to adapt to the culture you’re in and we can’t tell him to do like us because It’s not going to work there. 

Can you tell us what specifically he was doing that works in India but would not work in Europe?

But he was listening less. What we did is a lot about listening to the customers and the problems and identifying the key pain points and then you talk into that where he actually didn’t, he just talked and there’s like no listening. It was just like, Wow. But he’s like, no, when I come in, I’m the expert and they need to see me as the expert. And I saw what to do. And we are like Wow. And then I was impressed. Whereas here, we’ll just come off as arrogant. 

Right. 

And like you don’t care or… 

That’s fascinating. 

And it was just so funny to see him in a business situation because he was at the office a lot of the time and with him quite well. But just seeing how he did business was just so different from everyone else.

That reminds me of another question about the method of calling. I assume it was invented in the United States. I don’t know for sure. But in the United States, you can call or write or contact anyone anywhere in the country and just present your product and service, and that’s acceptable. 

I’m sure it’s changed, but traditionally in Europe, it was a lot about introductions and whom you knew and your cousin who went to school with someone who knows a leader whom you know who can make an introduction for you. 

Does that method still carry on in Europe about needing personal introductions, or can you still do a lot of cold calling? Or how is the method done now?  

So, I’d say, first of all, it depends from country to country. When I had my book published in the UK, I used introductions to get me an editor and it went really fast because it had some good introductions. And obviously, especially with all of these small countries, it’s more like a family party, you know, somebody and you have friends in common. 

So, it’s like in Denmark. If I meet someone that I don’t know, the first thing we’ll start talking about is finding out what friends we have in common. You never do that in the bigger countries, so obviously, relations are important, and it’s also always good, of course, for creating trust. 

But having said that, I mean and especially also for Denmark, because that’s where I’ve done the coldest calling. If you know that you can solve a specific problem and add value to that person, you can still do cold calling it’s very efficient and I feel comfortable doing it because I know that if I come and I know I can add value and I know I’m very specific about what can I do for you in your industry, people want to talk to me. Then they might say they have a solution, or they don’t have the problem, but I’ve never been brushed off or treated like I’m intruding or I’m being annoying. It’s always been a positive experience and most of the time I end up getting a meeting. 

They might say not now or say call back in three months and I will call back in three months and I would get the meeting. So, I think it definitely works. If you really care about whether I can create value for that person, you shouldn’t just be blindly calling from a list and not knowing what you’re doing because we have that kind of full stellar people that obviously nobody enjoys that kind of conversation. But if you’ve done it the right way, it’s still very efficient.  

Very interesting. And that leads to another question about business expansion from when you’ve worked in other companies. Is there a way that you determine whether to expand? Is it by market share or ROI or do you want to introduce a new product across many countries? Or do you have other criteria by which you determine whether to expand?  

I think obviously first, it depends on what kind of company you’re in, how much money they have, and how big a player is already in the market because you need to have an approach that would match that. 

So, say if you have a start-up scale-up, then sometimes the strategy would just be you need to get market shares and be really aggressive. It doesn’t even matter if we lose money, so to speak. We just need to get out there fast and we’ll get more investors. And then in ten years or in five years, we’ll look forward to actually creating profit, but that’s like an aggressive strategy and you just need to show that you can go out and get a lot of customers, or a lot of users. 

And then you go that way around and then like the other company I was in chemometric with, the cell count was the most of an established company in many countries and doing well. So, it was more looking into first of all, how we improve what we do and how we can upsell to existing customers or sell new products to existing customers. Obviously sales is a lot about trust and people knowing you. So, it’s always, always, always a lot easier to sell something new to an existing customer and do that kind of upsell than going into a new market. You need a whole… It’s a lot bigger investment going into a new market. 

So if you don’t have the money to do that investment of going into a new market, I will always look to say what can we sell on top of what we’re doing to the existing customer’s place and also if you’re for partnerships, I’ve always done if you’re especially a smaller company but also bigger saying whom could I work with that serves the same target group or audience but we’re not competing. 

And then let’s do something together because then they can introduce you to their clients. This goes a lot faster because introducing you would create some of the initial trust that you’re being introduced. You don’t come out of nowhere and so forth. So, if you can do these kinds of things, obviously it’s very efficient. And just that you need to be aware that every time you go into a new market, you need a considerable investment because whatever market you’re getting exposed to, they need to get to know you. 

So, you need to build that kind of brand awareness and trust, and obviously, if you have 12 pens that cost, I don’t know a dollar, it’s easier because you don’t need a lot of trust to buy a pen either. You’ll just not come back, or if you give a discount you’ll buy it, but when we talk to more B2B, sales managers, big investments, you need to build all of that. 

So, it’s just a lot of hard work. Every time you go into a new market, there might be something very specific. I helped a U.S. company going into Europe and they thought, oh, we could just copy-paste the American way. It’s all working very well. And you go like yeah…. but in Europe we have GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation], so how do we handle data? So, all data must be stored in Europe. So, if you’re storing it all in the US or in India, no. Go for some of the bigger countries now like France; you need everything in French. 

So, if you have all the contracts in English, it’s not going to cut it, even though they understand it. I know I worked for… I had Novartis, the big pharmaceutical company, as a customer once and it’s just like part of their operational procedures. They need it in French, and they need the user guides to be in French so that if they get the product, it’s not a matter of misunderstanding the English translation. Everything should be in their language. 

And so, there’s just a lot of things you need to know when you go into a new country, and you can’t just presume that because you’re all speaking English and we have access to the Internet then you can just copy-paste it.  

Very excellent. Let me ask you one more question again before we close and that’s about your individual coaching practice. Do you find that nationalities respond in different ways or are the issues that you raise purely individualistic?  

I would say it’s mainly individual, but then you still have some cultural things, as I said, where in Denmark, we don’t brag. So if I coach entrepreneurs and they have been very humble, you really need to work on being able to say I can create this value for you. I can do this without them feeling that they are crossing so many boundaries and being more or less violated by doing so. 

So, there will be stuff that’s still kind of cultural because we have that here and you wouldn’t have that in America that goes like you say, “Go do that,” and they would do it. You probably have done it because it’s part of the culture, so that might be something else you could do. And so forth. So you have something that is cultural and then a lot of things that are individual. I mean, you know that you know, a lot of people are in the US, you are all different. So, we can’t just generalize and say we’re all the same, but obviously, there are things that are. It’s human nature that you can work with and use, and those traits are pretty universal.

Yes, very true. Is there anything else you’d like to add before we close?  

Before we close. What would that be? Just that I enjoy the whole international aspect and I think it’s good also for diversity. Even though you stay in your own market to have people from other countries and ages, and whatever in that team, because it just brings a lot to the way you work instead of being stuck in your way in one way. And I think we need it more as we go forward. And the world is becoming more global and smaller.  

Very good. Well, thank you so much. It’s been a wonderful pleasure. You’ve got really extraordinary insights into European and Asian and many other kinds of business cultures because you’ve worked in so many companies across so many nationalities. So, thank you so much for joining us.  

You’re welcome. It’s been a pleasure being able to share my knowledge. So, thank you for having me.  

So, this has been Philip Auerbach of Auerbach international (www.auerbach-intl.com), and hope you will join us next week for another edition of Global Gurus and their stories of international business. Please also review the many other products and services at the end of Christine’s contact information that can benefit you personally and your business. Thank you. 

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