SUBTEXTsee the people they deal with as peasants. There's a big class
distinction throughout Italy. In Sicily, for example, the people
call the Neopolitans Northerners. They're talking about people
only forty miles away! They think of all Northerners as big industrial-
ists. The truth is, however, that Naples is a poor, devastated
city rife with unemployment.
"Now I must point out that there are exceptions. There's Olivetti.
Olivetti distributes merchandise all over Italy and they have their
own way of doing things. There's an Italian phrase about Olivetti
that sums up the policy of the firm. It's Taco Olivetti. Roughly,
it means the Olivetti way. Somehow they are successful in a very
bureaucratic system. The whole industrial setup in Italy is bureau-
cratic, and it goes right through to the government.
"Don't get me wrong," Samantha added quickly. "They are
not dishonest in the way that we know dishonesty. They believe
that's the way to do business, and it goes right down through the
culture to the stores themselves. Everything is negotiable. There
is no set price, except in the supermarkets which are modeled
on Western styles."THE HONG KONG CONNECTION
Elaine is a young woman who has spent six years in Hong Kong
working in banking. The business pace in Hong Kong, she told
me, is pretty much what it is in New York City, a fast-paced
environment. "The people hustle a great deal, and doing business
depends largely on personal relationships. A lot of business is
done in a social setting rather than in the office, over drinks,
over dinner, at the golf course, on a yacht. There are many hostess
bars in Hong Kong, and business is conducted there too.