WHEN WORLDS COLLIDEsteak and look down on reindeer eaters. They were pleased when
[ ordered reindeer meat as my main course during dinner. They
became more open, and I was more at ease. The barriers between
us dissolved."BUSINESS IN GERMANY, FRANCE, AND BELGIUM
The Germans, John told me, in many ways do business like the
Finns, in the sense that they are tough, specific, and demanding.
But that, he emphasized, is now. "I first went to Germany to do
business in the early fifties. They were still recuperating from
World War II, and we were the conquerors. We could do no
wrong, and they were eager to shed their guilt and tell us how
sorry they were. The subtext: 'We are out to please you at any
price.' "
However, returning to Germany in the sixties, John found that
things had changed drastically. "In Hamburg I met the same people
I had met twelve years ago. They were prosperous, and the war
was in the past, forgotten. They talked down to us in business
dealings because they were dealing from a position of power.
The subtext was 'We are the top guys!'
"In Germany today, they believe in candor. They no longer
worry about hurting your feelings. If you put out a proposition
that they think is terrible, they'll tell you right out what they
think of it. The subtext is 'We have the power and the strength.
You meet us on our terms.' "
France is quite different, according to John. "It's very regional,
and doing business there requires different strategies, and you
run into different subtexts depending on whether you're up north
or down south, east or west. The closer I got to the Belgian border,
for example, the more provincial I found the people to be. It