The ZIPD Conference is a coveted event every year for students of all majors and the BU alumni who make the trek back to the campus on the hill. For Donald Ganghenbaugh, Richard Wisniewski, Bob Moore, and Juli Miller, it is one of their favorite trips to make. Each of these alumni are head executives of global businesses and have tracked more airline miles than you could imagine.
Working in global business, is no easy feat and the four presenters at the Global Business session quickly made this clear. The over lying theme for the presentation was, patience.
“In global business you need patience and understanding,” said Ganghenbaugh, “there are three different “now’s” in global business. Now, just now and now now.”
There are countless cultures that make up the world and if your company works internationally, you need to understand that not all customers operate the same as the United States. Understanding which culture uses what kind of “now” is crucial to success and making a deal. Time is a huge cultural difference amongst countries, and with language barriers and different time zones, there are going to be challenges in communication.
Among most recent years, technology has been a big factor in helping break down those barriers and making communication easier. Even though technology makes contact more accessible, it has lessened the opportunity for face-to-face communication. Miller, who is Vice-President and Global Leader at Johnson & Johnson, uses Global Connect which is a video conferencing technology for interviewing, meetings, conferences and more.
“Technology will change global business,” said Miller, “but some cultures do need face-to-face communication with eye to eye contact and a firm handshake.”
International customers need to see commitment, be entertained and shown that they are your number one priority or they will not agree to doing business. Technology makes that personalized communication difficult, but is still possible nonetheless with proper training and huge amounts of patience from both parties.
“Global business is not for everyone”, said Miller, “take on a study abroad experience to show if you like working globally or not.”
Miller interned at Walt Disney World and lived within a community that was made up of people from all over the world. Having an experience that is out of your comfort zone, opens your eyes to a new global perspective. Due to cultural differences, you are not always on the same page, so global business is all about having patience to get people to do something they don’t want to do.
Along the lines of pushing the limits to getting people to do something, each of the four presenters stressed that you need to uphold ethical standards in global business. Obviously, everyone loves to make money, but you need to keep your reputation afloat. Just because it isn’t illegal, doesn’t mean it’s ethical.
The only way to truly understand and practice these global ethical standards is to get out there yourself and see if traveling the world is right for you. Study abroad gives you that experience and that is something Bloomsburg offers for many different programs. While taking it a step further and making traveling into a career may sound like a lot of work, these BU alumni have created successful businesses and a lifetime filled with relationships that reach across the world.
