TVE en su segunda cadena "La 2" ha empezado a emitir un nuevo programa "El Exportador".
Es un espacio de unos 30 minutos dividido en 4 secciones principales :
"en portada": aborda temas de actualidad con relación a la internacionalización
"tras las huellas": refleja la experiencia de una empresa implantada en un mercado exterior
"primeros pasos": narra los inicios de las pimes que estan dado sus primeros pasos en la actividad internacional
"pioneros": analiza la trayectoria de una empresa que lleva varios años de experiencia en los mercados exteriores
El programa cumple con la función de mostrar la capacidad de las empresas de salir al extrior y tener éxito, por otro lado la de informar y también de motivar a emprender el camino de la exportación o internacionalización.
El programa se emite en la 2 los sabados a las 12.30 h.
Me parece muy interesante que el ICEX y TVE se hayan implicado en lanzar a emisión un programa que divulgue temas y experiencias de comercio internacinal. Este tipo de programas son oportunos y necesarios en estos momentos de crisis donde la expansión de las empresas al exterior es una necesidad.
Podeís ver el vídeo del primer capítulo a continuación:
Friday 30 September 2011
Sunday 25 September 2011
Challenges of Motivating Multicultural Teams
Two weeks ago I had a little trouble with my sales agents becasue of my top management guidelines and their way of work differed. It affected their motivation and in consequence their performance.
Last week I worked to put the things on the right track.
So I have decided to get some information on the net about this subject and I would like to post a very interesting article published in trainingmag.com and written by Rana Sinha a cross-cultural consultant.
Do we motivate multicultural teams the same way we motivate teams with members all from the same culture?
Multicultural teams are everywhere, from multinationals to small companies, people from diverse cultural backgrounds physically situated in the same premises, or virtual teams across different time zones. But if people in multicultural teams lack motivation, things can get rough.
How is a multicultural team different?
Multicultural teams differ from same-culture teams in the following respects:
- Team members from different cultures have different communication styles, working methods, decision-making practices, and ways of measuring success.
- People see differently how national culture affects their own work behavior.
- The expectations of team behavior vary among national or ethnic cultures.
Special challenges of multicultural teams
A 2002 study by Jackson, Mannix, Peterson, and Trochim found same-culture teams faced personality and communication conflicts, differences of opinion about work, difficulties in deciding on a work method or approach, issues with timing and scheduling, and problems with contribution and workload distribution.
Multicultural teams also face the following additional challenges:
- Defining how national, ethnic, organizational, and familial cultures affect team interaction.
- Establishing a shared communication method.
- Understanding and discussing what motivates team members.
- Accepting a commonly agreed upon approach of dealing with challenges and handling crises.
- Having a shared vision of leadership, management, and way of measuring success in the team, in the organization.
- Ways of changing attitudes.
- Gaining trust.
Multicultural teams might function smoothly in good times. People are jovial and flexible. But, in a crisis, people may revert to typical defensive behavior from their own upbringing and team working suffers.
If team members get a perspective of how communication methods differ from linear to circular, from direct to indirect, from low-context to high-context, from task-focused to relationship-focused models, they would better understand other team members and communicate successfully. Further, team members should agree on a shared communication method for their particular needs. Teams, which have agreed upon communication methods, usually handle crises better.
How to understand people from other cultures
If team members never discuss what motivates them, as individuals and as representatives of their own culture, they may misread the other team members' motives.
Why do we actually need to understand people from other cultures? How should we behave with them? Do we need to learn elaborate bowing rituals and eat Sushi everyday with Japanese team members? If the Japanese or the Finns sit quietly during presentations, should everyone else do so?
Earn respect, but never fake it
A total mastery of another culture is difficult, as we cannot even master all the norms in our own. But the attitude towards other cultures is crucial. When you learn the logic behind behavioral norms, you understand the conditions that have created the cultural mindset. If people notice the respect you have for their culture, they will forgive you blunders you might make.
If you constantly use phrases such as "I respect your culture!" or "Ah! I have the utmost respect for Chinese culture!" while behaving insensitively, people consider you a fraud.
Trust is vital in a multicultural team
Gaining trust is vital for the effective functioning of any team. People try to gain trust through status, wealth, educational qualifications, social position, etc. Personal examples of trustworthy behavior such as honesty and dependability as well as knowledge, good communication skills, extraordinary performance on the job, superior skills, experience, and long-term perspective of the industry also create trust.
All teams go through different stages of evolution. Multicultural teams should pay more attention to the initial forming stage, where they begin to build working relationships. If team members don't bother to become familiar in the forming stage, assumptions, very difficult to unlearn later, start guiding behavior.
Strategies for motivating multicultural team members
As a motivating factor, money is important, but only to some extent. After they start getting a fairly decent level of compensation for their input, money stops being the greatest motivator for most people.
Motivating factors more important than money are:
- Recognition among peers for achievement.
- Recognition outside immediate work environment.
- Opportunities for continuous learning.
- Involvement in crucial decision-making.
- Suitable challenges move people occasionally outside their comfort zones.
Knowing the strengths, weaknesses, and performance history of each team member is necessary for mapping what they are capable of achieving and then creating strategies to make that happen. That every team member must feel a manifest desire to see each team member as successfully reaching his/her full potential in a unique way is a guiding principle and not just empty talk.
Opportunities for recognition among peers also exist outside the immediate work environment in professional bodies, seminars, among clients, or through the company magazine.
Training, e.g. multicultural awareness, teambuilding, and intercultural management workshops, motivate multicultural team members, but they must know why they are being trained.
Team members need to see how they fit into the big picture. If it becomes clear to members that by stretching themselves they are bringing more into play than just being saddled with responsibility from above, they improve and begin to shine.
Challenge people suitably
If people are too enmeshed in their comfort zones, they become complacent and performance decreases. But move people away from their comfort zones only with a clear purpose. If team members don't know this purpose, they start speculating and this becomes counterproductive. They need a vision of what they can achieve with feedback to allay fears.
The cause of fear can be paradoxical. Nelson Mandela, who managed to transform himself and affect the destiny of an entire nation spoke of this paradoxical nature of the cause of fear. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?"
Positive affirmation is stronger in motivating people than negative threats. No matter how many challenges you are facing, celebrate your working together!
Multicultural teams are everywhere, from multinationals to small companies, people from diverse cultural backgrounds physically situated in the same premises, or virtual teams across different time zones. But if people in multicultural teams lack motivation, things can get rough.
How is a multicultural team different?
Multicultural teams differ from same-culture teams in the following respects:
- Team members from different cultures have different communication styles, working methods, decision-making practices, and ways of measuring success.
- People see differently how national culture affects their own work behavior.
- The expectations of team behavior vary among national or ethnic cultures.
Special challenges of multicultural teams
A 2002 study by Jackson, Mannix, Peterson, and Trochim found same-culture teams faced personality and communication conflicts, differences of opinion about work, difficulties in deciding on a work method or approach, issues with timing and scheduling, and problems with contribution and workload distribution.
Multicultural teams also face the following additional challenges:
- Defining how national, ethnic, organizational, and familial cultures affect team interaction.
- Establishing a shared communication method.
- Understanding and discussing what motivates team members.
- Accepting a commonly agreed upon approach of dealing with challenges and handling crises.
- Having a shared vision of leadership, management, and way of measuring success in the team, in the organization.
- Ways of changing attitudes.
- Gaining trust.
Multicultural teams might function smoothly in good times. People are jovial and flexible. But, in a crisis, people may revert to typical defensive behavior from their own upbringing and team working suffers.
If team members get a perspective of how communication methods differ from linear to circular, from direct to indirect, from low-context to high-context, from task-focused to relationship-focused models, they would better understand other team members and communicate successfully. Further, team members should agree on a shared communication method for their particular needs. Teams, which have agreed upon communication methods, usually handle crises better.
How to understand people from other cultures
If team members never discuss what motivates them, as individuals and as representatives of their own culture, they may misread the other team members' motives.
Why do we actually need to understand people from other cultures? How should we behave with them? Do we need to learn elaborate bowing rituals and eat Sushi everyday with Japanese team members? If the Japanese or the Finns sit quietly during presentations, should everyone else do so?
Earn respect, but never fake it
A total mastery of another culture is difficult, as we cannot even master all the norms in our own. But the attitude towards other cultures is crucial. When you learn the logic behind behavioral norms, you understand the conditions that have created the cultural mindset. If people notice the respect you have for their culture, they will forgive you blunders you might make.
If you constantly use phrases such as "I respect your culture!" or "Ah! I have the utmost respect for Chinese culture!" while behaving insensitively, people consider you a fraud.
Trust is vital in a multicultural team
Gaining trust is vital for the effective functioning of any team. People try to gain trust through status, wealth, educational qualifications, social position, etc. Personal examples of trustworthy behavior such as honesty and dependability as well as knowledge, good communication skills, extraordinary performance on the job, superior skills, experience, and long-term perspective of the industry also create trust.
All teams go through different stages of evolution. Multicultural teams should pay more attention to the initial forming stage, where they begin to build working relationships. If team members don't bother to become familiar in the forming stage, assumptions, very difficult to unlearn later, start guiding behavior.
Strategies for motivating multicultural team members
As a motivating factor, money is important, but only to some extent. After they start getting a fairly decent level of compensation for their input, money stops being the greatest motivator for most people.
Motivating factors more important than money are:
- Recognition among peers for achievement.
- Recognition outside immediate work environment.
- Opportunities for continuous learning.
- Involvement in crucial decision-making.
- Suitable challenges move people occasionally outside their comfort zones.
Knowing the strengths, weaknesses, and performance history of each team member is necessary for mapping what they are capable of achieving and then creating strategies to make that happen. That every team member must feel a manifest desire to see each team member as successfully reaching his/her full potential in a unique way is a guiding principle and not just empty talk.
Opportunities for recognition among peers also exist outside the immediate work environment in professional bodies, seminars, among clients, or through the company magazine.
Training, e.g. multicultural awareness, teambuilding, and intercultural management workshops, motivate multicultural team members, but they must know why they are being trained.
Team members need to see how they fit into the big picture. If it becomes clear to members that by stretching themselves they are bringing more into play than just being saddled with responsibility from above, they improve and begin to shine.
Challenge people suitably
If people are too enmeshed in their comfort zones, they become complacent and performance decreases. But move people away from their comfort zones only with a clear purpose. If team members don't know this purpose, they start speculating and this becomes counterproductive. They need a vision of what they can achieve with feedback to allay fears.
The cause of fear can be paradoxical. Nelson Mandela, who managed to transform himself and affect the destiny of an entire nation spoke of this paradoxical nature of the cause of fear. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?"
Positive affirmation is stronger in motivating people than negative threats. No matter how many challenges you are facing, celebrate your working together!
Sunday 18 September 2011
Responsabilitat social corporativa
Aquest article el publicaré en català , la meva llengua, tot i que no és la més global també es mereix el seu espai.
En aquest període que estem passant de crisi on el més important és salvar les empreses i els llocs de treball hem d'anar una mica més enllà en la nostre gestió i visió de l'activitat empresarial i començar a pensar i aplicar conceptes d'un model de gestió basat en la responsabilitat social corporativa (RSC).
La responsabilitat social corporativa esta totalment lligat a la internacionalització de les empreses tant en les que deslocalitzen els seus processos productius com les que ho fan a costat de casa nostre.
La responsabilitat social corporativa esta totalment lligat a la internacionalització de les empreses tant en les que deslocalitzen els seus processos productius com les que ho fan a costat de casa nostre.
Que és la Responsabilitat Social Corporativa?
La wikipedia diu que la RSC també anomenada Responsabilitat Social de les Empreses (RSE), és el compromís de l'organització envers les necessitats dels seus grups d'interès en els diferents àmbits (laboral, acció social, medi ambient, clientela i entitats proveïdores, i bon govern i transparència), per mitjà d'una implicació voluntària i solidària més enllà del que estableix la legislació vigent.
La wikipedia diu que la RSC també anomenada Responsabilitat Social de les Empreses (RSE), és el compromís de l'organització envers les necessitats dels seus grups d'interès en els diferents àmbits (laboral, acció social, medi ambient, clientela i entitats proveïdores, i bon govern i transparència), per mitjà d'una implicació voluntària i solidària més enllà del que estableix la legislació vigent.
La Responsabilitat Social Corporativa ha de ser el model de gestió de les organitzacions pel qual, decideixen integrar de manera voluntària qüestions socials i mediambientals en les operacions i activitats.
Les empreses s'han de preocupar i implicar més en els grups del seu entorn com poden ser clients, proveïdors, treballadors, la comunitat en què opera i així poder contribuir a millorar la societat i el medi ambient.
La incorporació de polítiques i accions en aquest sentit ha de ser un factor clar de competitivitat per les empreses i tenir consciencia que el seu comportament comença a tenir rellevància creixent en la nostra societat.
Hem de treballar tots per un creixement just i sostenible.
Les empreses s'han de preocupar i implicar més en els grups del seu entorn com poden ser clients, proveïdors, treballadors, la comunitat en què opera i així poder contribuir a millorar la societat i el medi ambient.
La incorporació de polítiques i accions en aquest sentit ha de ser un factor clar de competitivitat per les empreses i tenir consciencia que el seu comportament comença a tenir rellevància creixent en la nostra societat.
Hem de treballar tots per un creixement just i sostenible.
Friday 9 September 2011
écoute active
Avec ce post je voudrais rappeler une des clés dans un procès de négociation ou communication: l'écoute active.
Moi même et beaucoup de monde fait des erreurs dans sa vie personnelle ou professionnel pour la manque de cette habilité que nous pouvons la travailler jour à jour pour l'améliorer.
Face une négociation à part de préparer votre argumentaire, fixer un limite, connaître les concessions à faire, délimiter les points que vous ne négocierez pas, étudier l'autre part et l'interlocuteur, rester calme au cours des conversations. Il y a une habilité que vous aidera à meilleur gérer la situation et obtenir un meilleur résultat : l'écoute active.
L'écoute active est une attitude et habilité qui implique savoir écouter (communication verbale et non verbale), savoir questionner et savoir reformuler si est le cas.
Elle permet de mieux connaître les besoins et motivations, de s’assurer de leur bonne compréhension et de montrer un intérêt pour son interlocuteur.
Cette attitude est applicable dans tout procès de communication.
Friday 2 September 2011
Incoterms 2010
Last 1st January 2011, the new Incoterms 2010 published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) will go into effect, reflecting developments in international trade within the last decade such as the increased use of electronic documentation and heightened global concerns about cargo security.
After eight months a lot of people is still using the previous one Incoterms 2000. I would like to encorage everybody to use the new Incoterms 2010 in thet contracts, invoices, etc.
Main changes are:
- Incoterms DAF, DES, DDU and DEQ replaced
Because of increased point-to-point sales and containerisation, Incoterms 2010 rename four existing Incoterms with two new Incoterms:
| New Incoterm 2010 | Incoterm 2000 |
| Delivered at Place (DAP) | Delivered at Frontier (DAF)Delivered Ex Ship (DES)Delivered Duty Unpaid (DDU) |
| Delivered at Terminal (DAT) | Delivered Ex Quay (DEQ) |
- Institute cargo clauses updated and insurance obligations clarified
In 2009, insurance markets adopted the revised Institute Cargo Clauses (LMA/IUA) (2009). Incoterms Cost Insurance and Freight (CIF) and Carriage and Insurance Paid (CIP) have been amended to reflect this. The amendments also clarify information obligations regarding insurance.
- Obligations around terminal handling charges clarified
Incoterms 2010 seeks to reduce the potential for buyers to be charged twice for terminal handling charges. Pass through of the cost of carriage of goods to an agreed destination, which often resulted in buyers being charged twice, should disappear as a result of amendments to CIP, CPT, CFR, CIF, DAT, DAP and CCP Incoterms.
- Requirements and obligations associated with string sales recognised
Incoterms 2010 recognises and clarifies the practice of string sales (ie, multiple sales of goods during transit).
Specifically, FCA, CPT, CIP, FAS, FOB, CFR and CIF Incoterms have been amended to provide that the seller in the middle of a string sale has an obligation to “procure goods shipped” and not to “ship” the goods.
The seller’s obligation to contract for the carriage of goods has been amended to allow the seller to procure a contract of carriage.
Previously, confusion occurred when some people misused FOB to indicate any point of delivery. This new categorisation clearly states that the FOB rule is meant to be used solely for sea and inland waterway transport.
Two changes for the FOB incoterm: the seller’s reponsibility extends until the goods are “on board the vessel” rather than “past the ship rail” (a small technical difference).
-Electronic Records
While earlier versions of Incoterms allowed for the use of electronic data interchange (EDI) messages if the parties had agreed on their use, Incoterms 2010 provides that paper documentation may be replaced with equivalent electronic records if agreed between the parties or customary. This gives electronic means of communication the same validity as paper documentation
Incoterms 2010
Multimodal Sea shipment
| Ex Works (EXW) | Free Alongside Ship (FAS) |
| Free Carrier (FCA) | Free on Board (FOB) |
| Carriage Paid To (CPT) | Cost and Freight (CFR) |
| Carriage and Insurance Paid to (CIP) | Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) |
| Delivered at Terminal (DAT) | |
| Delivered at Place (DAP) | |
| Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) |
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