I was thinking a lot about my another reader's comment regarding Russian, Chinese or Indian companies making mistakes while working with Americans. These cases are more difficult to find. I have not managed a project for an Indian or Chinese company so I cannot say. In terms of the Russians, here is the story.
They usually aproach an international project possibility with a lot of attention to detail. They do excellent background research. While Amercians might not KNOW how to deal with other cultures Russians, in most cases, do, but sometime they prefer to IGNORE that just because of being obstinate. Once I lead negotiations between a Russian and a British party and the former knew the latter very well, but chose to stick to their unacceptable methods of dealing with the other party because they didn't want to loose and inch. The ultimatum basically was "take it or loose it" and this is not the way to deal with the British (well, not the way to deal with anyone, really) The Russians KNEW that and this was their conscious choice to behave that way.
Did they win anything? They did, in terms of money on that one particular deal. They lost in terms of respect from the British and possibilities of having further deals with this party.
Another thing is that I noticed that Russians when aware of the other party's limitations will use this knowledge against the other party creating a win-lose situation rather than trying to make a compromise and get a "win-win".
Not all Russian companies are the same, of course but these are the things to be aware of.
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