Priceless Road Story by Baris Vural

I promised you a personal road story on my last blog post about international business challenges.  Well, here goes…

A rather comical journey took place a few weeks ago when I was in India for meetings with an NGO delegation from Myanmar (Burma).   A day prior to my departure, we had arranged a taxi to the airport. It was supposed to come at 7:30am, but when my watch showed 8:30am, and after many failed attempts of getting another car (apparently it was a public holiday and very few taxis actually operated), I started asking questions.  “Do you know where my taxi is?” The response I got was, “Sir, a taxi will be here shortly.” But then an hour later I was told it would be “very difficult to get a taxi.” After I told the receptionist I might miss my flight, he offered to take me to the airport himself.  So trying to demonstrate patience, I said, “Yes, so let’s get going.” A couple minutes later, a flashy red motorcycle showed up in front of the revolving doors and the very same guy at the reception was now telling me, “Sir, hop on please, we’re running late to your flight.”

This is one of those moments in your life where you wish it’s about time where somebody woke you up.   So here I am, very close to missing my flight, and if somebody had told me about an hour ago that “There is no way your taxi will come and don’t keep waiting,” then I wouldn’t have had to sit on the back of a bike desperately clinging onto my luggage which comfortably sat in between me and my motorcycle chauffeur cruising at 40 miles an hour.  As my face got hit by my driver’s tear drops due to our high speed race to the finish line, I thought to myself about the MasterCard commercial where truly in life, some things are absolutely “priceless.”

We finally arrived at the airport after spending 30 of the 45 minute ride with my eyes closed and a huge metal stick pushing up against the bottom of my spinal cord.  As we pulled up to the curb, with an abrupt left turn at the very end, I found myself lying on the ground, tightly hugging my luggage as if it was my life vest.  I looked up and saw my driver’s face with a huge crowd of people behind him asking me, “Sir, are you OK?” Trying not to say “NO,” I replied, “I am pretty far from OK so please somebody give me a hand because I have a flight to catch.” As I ran and jumped through security, people at the check-in counter were yelling from behind, “Sir, you will not make that flight.” At last somebody was saying “no way” but I think it was a bit too late, and I was saying to myself, “You guys don’t know what I am capable of.”

Well, the 16+ hour trip home wasn’t a lot of fun, especially after the back pain kicked in once the plane left the ground.  But, that was an experience of a lifetime and it taught me one thing:  if you’re in a high-context culture and somebody tells you something is very difficult, it’s a polite way of saying, “No way in the world is that going to happen.” You should immediately start looking into other alternatives!

by Baris Vural

Greetings everyone, my name is Baris Vural and I am the International Sales and Alliance Manager at Serenic Software.  I manage all Serenic sales and partners outside of North America which leaves me a fairly large territory – and gives me the opportunity to travel around the world!

I am overly excited to make my first blog post so I’ll be trying really hard to “express to impress.”   That’s the reason why I wanted to pick a topic which is near and dear to my heart but hopefully generic enough to catch everyone’s attention, especially for those who travel abroad for leisure or business and/or interact with people from various different cultures in their daily lives.

I feel that today’s world of globalization is certainly becoming smaller and people of various cultures are able to communicate freely. Nowadays, people can express ideas, which span across cultures through many different forms of media – such as television, newspapers and the internet (email, social media, blogs, etc.). Many would love to disregard the existence of cultural differences due to the advancement in technology and the after effects of globalization, but that sometimes comes with a high price.

Boundaries are becoming increasingly transparent and the world keeps shrinking with the trade of goods.  We now all come in contact exponentially with more people from multiple ethnic groups and very different cultures without truly understanding the differences. These cultural differences—both in business and social settings—can cause problems interpreting what the other person is doing or what the individuals really mean by their actions.  It could even go to the extent of you having to hop on to the back of a motorcycle to catch a flight—well, stay tuned for that story in my next blog post!

In the U.S. and most of the western world, a firm, short handshake indicates self-confidence and seriousness. A limp handshake can be interpreted as a sign of ingenuity or lack of sincerity. But in most parts of Africa, a limp handshake is the correct way to do it.  If you do it too firm, you will most likely offend the other person and cause them to remove their hand too soon—and then you’re off to a bad start.  Furthermore, it is common in Africa for the handshake to last several minutes, while in the U.S., a handshake that is even a few seconds too long could make individuals feel very awkward.

Check out the full blog post and stay tuned for some personal road stories related to cultural differences.