The speaker discusses the importance of cross-cultural understanding for business success. She is honored to speak about this topic given her own multicultural background growing up in Italy, Tunisia, and France. In her work in the construction industry, she has seen the value of acting locally while thinking globally. She then discusses two successful women leaders - a lawyer and actress from Tunisia and an international model turned artist - as examples of how embracing multiculturalism and women's perspectives can lead to professional achievements by breaking down barriers.

1. www.apid.to.it

3. I am honoured to be with you for 2 reasons.
First of all because, as my mentor told me, the great woman of female
entrepreneurship well-known here, La Signora Boschis: "Alone, we are
invisible; together, we are invincible."
The second reason : I felt in love with this theme: a cross-cultural
approach to business. Let me tell you why: I was born to a Torinese (not
just Italian) father and a Tunisian mother, I studied in Paris and I have
invested in a sector very much male and muscular, the sector of the
construction industry, in the production of floor and wall coverings,
veneer stone and, to complicate it a little bit more, in various countries as
diverse as Tunisia, Italy, Egypt, the Emirates.
That’s why I took the first flight here to share with you some of my
experiences and those of my female friends worldwide.
www.apid.to.it

5. Summary
I – knowlegde : sustainable
competitive advantage
II – act local & think global
III – woman, cross-cultural
quintessence
www.apid.to.it

6. I – Knowlegde : sustainable
competitive advantage
SAY anything to anyone, anywhere! :
Successful Cross-Cultural Communication
www.apid.to.it

7. Create Proactive Communication
Cross-Culturally
• It avoid Reactive Communication
• It permits us to be proactive in our cross-cultural communications. As
many cultural diversity books state, if you aren't proactive in your
interpersonal, phone, and email communication with different
cultures, you will likely be reactive.
www.apid.to.it

8. Rapport Secret To Bridge The Cultural Gap
• It permits us to use simple rapport secrets to create trust, and
a common bond, with the cultures we visit or work with. It
establishes a connection, trust, and ultimately leads to respect.
Being in rapport with someone is the key element in successful
relationships. Everyone knows how uncomfortable it is to be
out of rapport with someone, regardless of their culture.
www.apid.to.it

9. Organize Productive Interaction Multi-Culturally
• It permits us to understand Cultural Sensitivities and Avoid
Conflict
• It permits us to organize productive interactions, and know the
factors to consider when organizing multi-cultural interactions.
Time differences, and how different cultures relate to time.
Communication approaches, and if we should take a direct or
more indirect approach. Whether the interaction needs to be
more relationship oriented or outcome oriented.
www.apid.to.it

10. Strategies For Cross-Cultural Relationship
• It permits us to develop interpersonal and virtual strategies that
build strong relationships. Understand the beliefs, values, and
rules of the cultures we visit, work with, and socialize with.
These drive the relationship strategies. Avoid cultural
misunderstanding and conflict due to differences. Foster
cooperation and respect with every culture.
www.apid.to.it

12. II – act local & think global
• The increasingly global business environment requires managers to
approach the negotiation process from the global business person's
point of view. This approach includes aspects which are usually
unimportant in domestic negotiations. Some of the components of a
cross cultural negotiation process are more complex and difficult, but
will increase our success in avoiding barriers and failures in the
international business arena.
www.apid.to.it

13. When doing business internationally, we need to consider (Salacuse, 1991):
• The negotiating environment
• Cultural and sub-cultural differences
• Ideological differences
• Political instability and economic changes
www.apid.to.it

14. • Considering the fact that culture also determines the way other
cultural contexts are perceived, leads us to the recommendation to
“think local, act global”.
Figure 1: culture as (gendered) organizational practice
www.apid.to.it

15. • “As organizational environments become more global, dynamic, and
competitive, contradictory demands intensify. To understand and
explain such tensions, academics and practitioners are increasingly
adopting a paradox lens.” (Smith and Lewis. 2011: 381). The
paradoxical approach enables us to advance the argument that there
can be both a divergence and a convergence of management
practices. “The coexistence of global and local into each other is at
the core of the Yin Yang approach to understanding culture,
marketing and international business in general in the age of
globalisation” (Fang, 2012:208). The paradoxical approach is an
umbrella for the embracive theories of both convergence and
divergence, both global and local, where national culture dynamic
takes place in the age of globalisation such as the glocalisation
theory.
www.apid.to.it

16. • When different cultures clash with each other, this collision or
friction can help motivate and encourage cultural process
learning on both sides (Fang, 2011). As Brannen and Salk (2000)
suggest, it will probably lead to the integration of both cultures
into a new hybrid ‘negotiated culture’. Therefore, when different
cultures meet, the potential for penetrating into each other exist
and coexist within each other. This cultural learning of value and
practices is a direct result of the cultural encounters and clashes
happening in the global marketplace and cyberspace of
globalisation, foreign direct investment and Internet (Bird and
Fang, 2009).
www.apid.to.it

17. • Chevrier (2009) explored the relevance of national culture to
management in a global feature blurring borders and boundaries. In
her view, the transfer of management practices in a globalized world
requires to understand behaviours and to design instruments that fit
and respect both the legal constraints and the political cultural
context.
• The standardization process is thus exposed to resistance and the
point is to identify the variables that resist the globalisation process.
www.apid.to.it

18. III–woman, cross-cultural quintessence
• Language, cultural identity, religion, culture, and customs are all rich with
knowledge and great tools for success. But they would not have the same
impact if one does not value women. Women bring diversity, a cross-cultural
approach to living, we are the essence of multi-culturalism or the "melting
pot".
www.apid.to.it

19. • How?
- We are mothers with all our love and protective instinct; we educate,
we teach our children with all our pedagogy and values;
- we are wives, lovers of our men with all of our sensuality and
femininity;
- we are at the same time men at work, with skills and intelligence,
- we make decisions every day in all areas at the same time in all these
roles that we have been given.
Let’s have some successful examples of leaders women
www.apid.to.it

20. • Hend Sabry
www.apid.to.it

21. • This woman is an example of cross-cultural success.
• Tunisian-born, she is a lawyer in one of the most important studios in
North Africa.
• But she has also followed a career which began with a passion and
today is her profession: film actress, she is one of the most famous
actresses in the Arab world.
• One of her successful tools was her multi-culturalism, her melting pot of
language and culture that allowed her to break through the
barriers and social issues related to the noble profession of lawyer and
granted her to live out her passion.
www.apid.to.it

22. When I called to ask her what she thought of our subject, her message was:
• " when I started acting In my country Tunisia, I was 14 and it wasn't
common to find young girls aspiring to an artistic career , mainly because
of the stigma related to being "an artist" in Arab countries.. Then I moved
to a gigantic "Cairo" at 21 and made a name in the Middle East with my
two biggest assets: parents who trusted and believed in me , and a
masters degree in law that made me gain respect faster.. And this is my
advice to every Arab girl: If you want to succeed in a hostile environment,
don't care too much about others' judgements or opinions, surround
yourself with positive and creative people, and get yourself a solid
education, even if it's not in the field you end up choosing. Education
always helps."
www.apid.to.it

23. • Diana Avgusta Stauer
• This woman is an example of cross-cultural success.
www.apid.to.it

24. • Of Russian citizenship, birth and upbringing, she is a highly successful
international supermodel.
• Her passion is art and her favourite country is Italy. He decided after 15
years of working all over the world to turn the page and give in to her
passion, which has now become her profession: she has art galleries in Italy
and France, and her paintings are exhibited around the world.
www.apid.to.it

25. • When I called her to tell her about our subject, I asked her, Diana,
how do you explain your success? She replied, firstly, I am a woman
and I choose to act as such, I have worked as a man works, but
more than that it is the cultural richness that life has given me that
has allowed me to break down doors and convey my passions.
• She added: "The power of the ladies is in their unity. Female energy
is much more powerful than anything else if it's combined together.
Key to success is to dream the impossible things that you want,
without the limits. If people tell you it's crazy it's ok. It means if you
succeed others will admire you! Because easy ways are trivial"
www.apid.to.it

26. “Look like a girl,
Act like a lady,
Think like a man,
Work like a Boss”
www.apid.to.it