Presentation on business etiquette and international business etiquette.

1. Business Etiquettes
Pratyush Banerjee & Sunny Bose
MTP Workshop

2. Business Etiquette
Discussion Session
• Professional Etiquette
• Dining Etiquette
• Cocktail Parties
• Correspondence
Etiquette
• Office Etiquette
• Etiquette Abroad

3. Professional Etiquette
• You only have ONE
opportunity to make a
good first impression

4. First Impressions
• Within 30 seconds people judge your
– Economic level
– Educational level
– Social position
– Level of sophistication
– Level of success
• Within 4 minutes people decide your
– Trustworthiness
– Compassion
– Reliability
– Intelligence
– Capability
– Humility
– Friendliness
– Confidence

5. Are First Impressions Lasting?
• YES
• Made with emotional not rational brain
• Once made rational brain seeks validation
• Don’t want to change opinions
• Experience teaches us validity of first
impressions

6. Making Positive First Impressions
• Determine audience
• Identify their expectations
• Establish objectives
• Dress, behave, and communication in a way
that reflects audience expectations

7. A,B,C’s of Image
• Appearance
– Color, wardrobe, grooming
• Behavior
– Etiquette, civility, attitude
• Communication
– Verbal, nonverbal, written

8. Professional Etiquette—
Meeting and Greeting
• Handshake: offer entire hand, web-
to-web, shake lightly and release
• Know whom to introduce first
– Junior to senior
– Fellow worker to client
• Eliminate slang/jargon from your
vocabulary
• Always on time, always organized,
always ready

9. Business networking
in social situations
• Never introduce yourself
by your title
• Keep your right hand free
• Stay informed of current
events
• Maintain eye contact

10. Showing Respect
• Always use last names with customers unless
they are about your age and rank
• Don’t keep customers waiting
• Escort clients out
• When someone of higher rank or from outside
the organization enters, everyone in the office
stands
• Junior employees stand until seniors sit

11. Business Cards
• Manage business card exchanges flawlessly
• Always have a supply of cards
• Ask for someone’s card before offering your own
• Present card face up
• Take time to look at received card
• NEVER turn down an offered card
• Be selective when distributing cards
• Be aware of international card etiquette

12. Lunch/Dinner Host
• Consider preferences of guests
• Give specifics
• Make reservation and reconfirm day before
• Arrive 10 min early, look at table, meet server
• Greet guest at entrance. Guest precedes down aisle.
Guest gets best seat. Seat yourself to their left.
• Offer menu advice to guests, order easy-to-eat food
and limit drinks for yourself

13. Lunch/Dinner Guest
• Reply promptly to invitation
• Only cancel on very urgent business
• Be on time—call restaurant and send message to
host if late
• If you arrive before host, you may sit at table but eat
nothing but water until host arrives
• Never order the most expensive item
• Take no notice of check. Do NOT offer to leave tip
• Thank your host!

14. Lunch/Dinner Meetings--Beginnings
• Stand on the right side of your chair and enter
from your left
• Napkins go in lap asap—fold toward waist
• Toasts may be offered before eating and after
dessert. Both are initiated by host. Toasted
party does NOT drink to himself
• Pass to the right and do not help yourself
first—pass salt and pepper as a set

15. Lunch/Dinner Meetings--
Ordering Food
• Decide on your menu selections
quickly
• Order medium-priced food
• Think about the mess factor
• Don’t order alcohol
• Do not share a dessert

16. Lunch/Dinner Meetings—
Dealing with the Food
• Put your napkin in your lap
• Wait for all people to be served before
beginning
• Know which silverware to use with which
food
• Cut your meat one bite at a time
• Break off small bites of bread and butter
only one bite at a time
• Hold wine glass by the stem for whites
and by the bowl for reds
• Take cues from the host-if in doubt,
watch and copy

17. Lunch/Dinner--Foods
• Soup - dip spoon into soup sideways away from you.
Sip from side. Tip bowl only for last drops. Never
crumble saltines in soup Rest spoon on plate when
finished.
• Salad—eat salad with fork, use knife only as last
resort. Leave utensils on plate at 10:20 position
• Dessert—Slide utensils down from top as dessert is
served. Place both on plate when finished

18. Lunch/Dinner—Difficult Foods
• Asparagus—Eat with fingers unless in sauce, then use knife
and ford
• Bacon—Only very crisp bacon may be eaten with fingers
• Pastries—Cut in halves or quarters and eat with fingers or fork
• French fries—Eat with fingers if served with sandwiches or
burgers
• Grapefruit halves—Eat with spoon, leave juice
• Lemon Wedge—Squeeze over fish with fingers
• Pasta—Separate a few strands with folk. Twirl onto fork with
tines held again plate
• Potatoes—Eat baked potatoes with a fork. Skins with knife
and fork. Move butter from butter plate to potato with fork.
Never mash potatoes on plate. Eat chips with fingers

19. Lunch/Dinner - Taboos
• Elbows on table
• Salt/pepper on food before tasting
• Talking with mouth full
• Drinking with food in mouth
• Gesturing with silverware
• Pushing back or stacking plates at end of meal
• Answering or placing cell phone calls at table
• Dunking anything into coffee or water
• Making a fuss over incorrect orders
• Arranging hair or applying makeup at table
• Picking your teeth at the table

20. Lunch/Dinner Meetings –
Formal Place Settings

21. Lunch/Dinner Meetings - Extras
• Don’t eat with your mouth full
• Keep one hand in your lap unless you are eating European
style
• Remove anything from your mouth with the same implement
that it went in with (except bones)
• Eat at a moderate speed
• Try to maintain some polite dinner conversation
• Never medicate yourself at the table
• If you must leave the table, place your napkin in your chair

22. Lunch/Dinner Meetings—
Easy endings
• Knife and fork side by side in the 10:20
position on dinner plate
• The host or person who has issued invitation
pays (regardless of gender)
• If you are paying bill, handle it with
waitperson as discreetly as possible
• As you depart table, refold your napkin simply
and leave it to left of place setting

23. Cocktail Parties
• Work event—not social
• Determine your strategy: network with new people
or certain known targets
• Don’t just hang out with friends
• Enter room, step to one side, survey room
• Move toward friendly faces or already formed group
• If someone enters your group, greet them and make
introductions

24. Cocktail Party Tips
• Go to food table first—easiest place to start
conversations
• Stand in middle of room or near food table, stay
away from walls
• Learn how to hold napkin, plate and glass in one
hand
• Keep one hand free to shake hands
• Don’t overindulge in alcohol
• Maneuver among people—don’t get stuck

25. Small Talk
• 3 distinct parts
– Opener
– Middle
– Break away

26. Small Talk Openers
• Individuals
– Compliment, weather, food, current event
– “I love your______. Is it a family heirloom?”
• Group
– Something pertaining to everyone
– “How do you all know each other?”
– “Will you be traveling this summer?”
• Casual acquaintances
– General comments
– “How has your year been?”

27. Small Talk Middle
• Safe topics
– Sports, books, movies, theater, art, travel
• Questions
– Ask, listen, elaborate with matching experience,
Ask again
• Be more interested than interesting

28. Small Talk Break-Away
• Stay no more than 10 min in one place
• Break-away lines
– “I don’t want to monopolize you.”
– “I’m going to circulate.”
– “I see someone I must meet.”
• Tell them you enjoyed speaking with them
• Discuss next steps
– Going for food, to next person, etc.

29. Correspondence Etiquette
• Every written invitation gets a response
unless it asks for money
• Respond within 1 week
• Follow directions for response
• Special instructions (dress code) will be in
lower corners
• Envelope will indicate if you may bring
guest
• Send “Thank you” letters
• Always include a cover letter for written
documents
• Sit on written documents for 24 hours (if
possible)

30. E-mail Etiquette
• E-mail only those people to whom
your messages actually pertain to—
don’t send mass or chain letters
• M-ake a point of responding to
messages promptly
• A-lways use spell-check and grammar
check before sending messages—be
brief and clear
• I-nclude your telephone number in
your message
• L-earn that e-mail should be used for
business rather than personal use—
don’t send anything you wouldn’t want
to see in public

31. Telephone manners
• Answer the phone with your name and company (or
department)
• When placing calls, state your name and company or
department immediately when phone is answered
• Speak clearly
• State the purpose of your call
• Only use speakerphone for conference calls
• Always smile when using the phone
• Say please and thank you
• Judge your audience before making small talk
• Return your calls

32. Voice Mail/Mobile Phone Use
• Realize proper usage of mobile phones in
business
• Understand how to leave an adequate voice
message
• Check messages frequently on a daily basis
• Avoid using in a restaurant, movie, church, or
meeting
• Limit your conversation when in close quarters
• Use a quiet voice
• Don’t give out credit card #
• Refrain from using when driving

33. Office Etiquette
• Be self-aware-use common sense
• Mind your own business
• Avoid strong cologne
• Never ever go over your supervisor’s head
• Obey your company’s business dress attire
• Treat every employee with the same
respect
• Do not post things of an offensive nature
• No matter your job or your title, always
hold yourself to a higher standard

34. The 12 Commandments of Cubicle Etiquette
• Thou shall not enter another person’s • Thou shall realize that everything you
cubicle unless you are invited. say makes an impression on your
• Thou shall not interrupt someone “internal customers.”
who is on the telephone by using sign • Thou shall not make or receive
language or any other means of personal telephone calls during the
communication. workday.
• Thou shall think twice before • Thou shall not establish eye contact
interrupting someone who appears with someone when you would
deep in thought. prefer not to be interrupted.
• Thou shall be aware of how your • Thou shall stand up and walk toward
voice projects. the entrance of your cubicle when
• Thou shall realize that speaker you would like an impromptu
phones and cubicles don’t mix. meeting short.
• Thou shall not discuss a confidential • Thou shall recognize your cubicle is a
matter in a cubicle setting. direct reflection of you. Keep it neat
and orderly.

35. Meeting Etiquette
• Always have your calendar, notebook &
pen
• Never bring up personal
problems/issues in a professional
situation
• Avoid “you” talk
• Stay on schedule
• In conference rooms hang back until
power players have taken seats: ends
and middle sides of table are power
seats

36. Etiquette Abroad
• Know the various
cultural nuances of the
particular country
• Do your homework
• Problem solving &
issues of protocol and
chain of command
differ greatly between
countries

37. Thank You.