It’s October 2024 and I’m writing this post in Doha, Qatar.
Later this month there’s a very large food & beverage exhibition taking place in Paris, it’s called SIAL.
Last year I attended a similar show called Anuga in Germany which was important for engaging with both existing and new clients.
Besides both being food exhibitions, where the vast majority of exhibitors speak English (usually very well), English isn’t the native language of most exhibitors.
Last week I contacted one executive who I met at Anuga, only to find she was out of work.
Nothing new I hear you think.
However, this person was working for an ambitious and sizeable European food business, keen to grow further in Asia. I was impressed by her Japanese, French and of course English. She had senior leadership experience with another blue chip stalwart.
She was well trained; I judged her to be a safe pair of hands.
These fortes are not easy to find. I was surprised her employer couldn’t find room for her talents.
At Webenpartners we have a strong team of associates many of whom are bilingual. Over the years I’ve come to value linguistic skills as much as a business school education.
When I worked for Nestlé the vast majority of its international executives could handle meetings and customer engagements in at least two if not three languages.
Rupert, you never know what language the next call is coming in
Senior Nestlé executive’s advice to me when I joined the International programme
Mark Zuckerberg is said to have a strong command of Mandarin. Softbank’s Masayoshi Son speaks Korean, Japanese and English.
A couple of months ago I came across this TV clip featuring Goldman Sachs’s Japan head of equities speaking flawless (business) Japanese. (It has since gone viral in Japan).
Last week I was rereading parts of Mark McCormack’s best seller, where he lambasts American businesses for their insularity.
Of the world’s companies, American-run businesses are by far the most arrogant and chauvinistic. Most of their international divisions haven’t taken the time to break down language and cultural barriers, preferring to declare them impenetrable.
Mark McCormack, “What they don’t teach you at Harvard business school”
Now these words were written over 20 years ago and times have moved on*. Still, not all executives work in English, and not everyone has studied at Harvard, Stanford or Oxford.
Certainly in the consumer products business, the consumer who is king or queen or whatever largely doesn’t care about globalisation.
Language skills are key to building relationships. Whilst the Anglo-American world (of which I’m a product) preaches a doctrine of “outputs”, the segregation of work and personal life; and crisp decisions.
In reality most of us do business with people we like and trust. Winning clients is hard. I have been consulting now for over 15 years and the interpersonal factor is critical. It requires communication and de facto language skills.
At Weben a lot of our work is understanding consumer and shopper behaviours. We also spend a lot of time interviewing trade customers. Many of these interviews are in local languages. There are often important words and concepts that do not translate readily. Think umami for example.
I’ve stopped in Qatar for 24 hours en route to London. From what I judge so far most people speak Arabic and English and often another tongue too. It’s impressive.
Interested in what I uncovered in Doha? That’s the subject of a later blog post!
*I have many American friends in Japan, some of whom speak excellent Japanese. I have also noticed recently more graduates from North America fluent in Asian languages.