Culture is a series of concentric circles

Distinction between the mix of cultural, familial, and individual characteristics helps entrepreneurs avoid mistakes and stereotypes.

Every individual is a combination of culture, family, and personality. Upon meeting your first Hindu, you may come to a number of conclusions that must be sorted into at least these categories to be accurate. You may learn she is a vegetarian and assume no Hindu eats meat. This is only partly true; it’s likely a familial decision that has its roots in a religious culture. You may discover she enjoys wearing colorful clothes and think it’s a personal decision, but color is an important factor in the Hindu culture. You may find out she has an engineering degree and believe it’s because she enjoys Math, only to unearth that it was her parents choice for her. Each person is different and even when their actions coincide with a familiar culture, they may be directed from a unique worldview.

Entrepreneurs must drill through the layers that make up a person’s worldview if they are to interact with them in a business and social environment. Exposure to many people from a middle-class Chinese background can help an entrepreneur understand when the behavior of a lone Chinese man is idiosyncratic and not a good base from which to found business decisions when working with Chinese middle-class men. Wide exposure to many from a similar context is therefore valuable CQ business knowledge. However, an entrepreneur must go dig further into an individual’s characteristics if they are to navigate a global network of people. While the knowledge gained from interacting with many Chinese middle-class men may help determine how to market to their demographic, it may prove harmful when closing a partnership with a Chinese business owner who grew up in London, England and thinks guanxi is an outdated custom (Livermore, pg. 72).

There’s a waveform nature to learning culture. At times the focus is on the absorption of big-picture ideas like guanxi which can alter the flavor of every interaction, at others the focus centers upon an individual’s life and family and how they see the world from their past. Cultural intelligence can seem like a confusing game-how often have I been oblivious when I should have been confused-but the effort to gain cultural knowledge requires this multiform curiosity. Thankfully, many are happy to oblige if asked whether they eat burritos every Friday because it’s a family tradition, because it’s a national standard, or because burritos are their favorite food!

References