Improving Communication with Foreign Based Business Partners

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3 Effective Ways of Improving Communication with Business Partners Based in other Countries
One of the pleasures of being an entrepreneur is the ability to choose the people you’re going to work with, be it a close friend, a family member, or someone with a good track record in the business industry to have as your business partner. But while a healthy, well-matched partnership can be mutually beneficial and profitable, human relationships are complex. Business partnerships like any other relationships are filled with broken expectations, changing priorities, and misaligned values. Most of these challenges boil down to the lack of proper communication between partners, so how can this be improved especially when your business partner is based in another country?

Whose Today’s Guest?

 Mwila Chilakata is a Core-Consultant Member of Inspired Life Foundation in Development and Entrepreneurship.

One challenge that most partnerships between individual’s based in different countries face is a lack of understanding when it comes to the dynamics of each other as partners. What this means is there is no clear understanding of who the other partner is and where they are coming from.

Many venture into partnerships not knowing who they’re going in to business with and what exactly that partner does in the country that they are based in. It is these dynamics that end up affecting the partnership in the long run. When we talk about Dynamics we are simply referring to the political, economic, social, technological and the business environment that your potential partners are based in. This will help you determine how viable your partnership might be in light of the dynamics on both ends.

Improving Communication between Partners

Like any other relationship, partnerships can be compared to people that a courting or married and like these relationships, for one to improve communication there is need to understand each other and why exactly you are considering to go into a partnership with them. This entails taking your time to understand the various dynamics of a country that a business partner is based in. once a clear sketch has been mapped it will help you to determine what measures can be implemented to improve communication.

Secondly there is need to access oneself in terms of personality and determine how you react to conflict situations and how that would affect your business partners.

Thirdly technological advancements, with the impact of covid-19 many areas have been affected but despite that there have been opportunities that have emerged as a result of this. In term of communications there several applications that allow for a face to face conversations like ZOOM and Skype. It is now possible to interact with anyone anywhere on the planet face to face, something that you can benefit from is you get to see the facial expressions of the person you are interacting with.

Cultural Differences

When we talk about cultural differences we are not necessarily talking about tribes per say but the aspect of work culture instead. What is your approach to business, are you aggressive or passive when it comes to business?

Take for instance if you looked to partner with people from Zimbabwe for an agricultural project one thing is for sure, they will be aggressive in the way that they handle the business as a whole as Zimbabweans are more vested in agriculture and farming. Given the stability that Zambia has a partnership in this field would be highly profitable.

In a nutshell, cultural differences will wholly look at the perspectives that you or your potential partner has towards work.

Key Insights:

  • Understand the dynamics you are involved in and those of the partners you would like to partner with in other countries.
  • Respect whoever you partner with in business. There is no need to belittle your partners. You are both equals and you deserve respect.
  • Be open minded, you are coming from a different perspective of doing things as a business. You will need to be tolerant of each other as business partners and learn to understand each other.

“Like any other relationship, when looking for a business partner you will need to know who he or she is and what they stand for ”

Insight Partners Africa— aims to bring you actionable insights from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.

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