Cross Cultural Communication Case Study

Q23: And how do you think, do these differences which you have mentioned on the cross-cultural communication and how are they minimized within the company?
Yes, that’s the same thing, these issues are minimized by surveying, we surveyed the Russian product owners, we surveyed the American people who deal with them and we listed the issues, we gave a guideline document to Russia, how to better communicate, we gave a guideline document to Americans, how to better communicate. And that’s how you minimize it by being aware of it, and once you have something to look at, you can’t complain anymore.
Q24: Which factors in general in your opinion have the biggest impact on the effective cross-cultural communication in any international IT company and
You know people who can live in a different country and work within the team. We work very closely with the Russian colleagues and vice versa, but there is not much business travel between the two teams other than the President and CEO. I’ll give you an example, we were having a lot of issues with communicating with our Finance head in Russia, Accounting head in Russia. I think the lady’s name is Julia. She came to visit us, I think, for 8 days, and a lot of those problems went away. Being able to sit in front of each other and understand is a very different thing than doing it all over the phone and email. So the recommendation that I have for any company is that key people within the team as well as the team mates should have an opportunity to go to other offices and spend between a few weeks to a few months working with them, next to them in order to understand cultural nuances, otherwise it’s just an academic
- Yes, for example, in Russian office it’s often believed that in order to do something well you have to be in good relations with your colleagues and maybe to go out together after work as well? How do think, does it matter or not so much?
- I think it matters, and again it’s my personal background, in all of the companies I have worked with knowing each other on a human level improves your, well, not necessarily improves, knowing each other on a human level makes you better in expressing them whatever it might be. So at all my jobs in the past managers have routinely taken out their teams for teambuilding experiences. I’ll give you examples, at SEMrush we are planning to do soon, maybe next year, white water rafting as a team together. Because when you work outside of your work as a team and solve problems, that brings you closer, so it’s a part of team building. Going out for drinks is good sometimes. I don’t believe that it’s good of becoming personal friends, I think that hampers work, but doing it as a team, I think it brings you closer on a human level and helps you to understand each other’s communication backgrounds a lot more. But the second part of the question – does becoming friends helps you to work better, my answer is no. Professional colleagues should stay professional colleagues, because when you are friends, it means different