WHEN WORLDS COLLIDEthe States. Americans read Soviets' subtext as 'I've got my job
no matter what I do or don't do.' We throw up our hands, and
yet ..." He hesitated. "It's a market with such potential!"INDIA
Mike has also done some business in India. "What a difference,"
he told me. "In India they let you do whatever you want to do.
You tell a manufacturer, I want that item for twenty-five cents,
and no matter what, you'll get it."
The pervasive poverty in India, according to Mike, forces them
to keep their small factories open at any expense. "It's their sole
support, and if they lose money on one deal, they'll look for
another to make it up.
"Usually, when you start negotiating at a factory, you find that
the person you are negotiating with will have some contact with
the factory, but he or she is not part of it. That person could
be the factory's outside accountant, lawyer, or a business acquain-
tance, someone who's considered your equal. ..."
This outsider will do the talking, Mike explained, but you have
to read the subtext behind the talk. What they are talking about
is not necessarily what will happen on the factory level. "This is
tremendously important in making any contract or commitment."
GREAT BRITAIN: CLASS STILL COUNTS
In trying to get at the subtexts of businesspeople in Great Britain,
I talked to Ian, who has lived in the States for thirty years and
represents an American company abroad.
"I constantly do business with the Brits," he told me, "and
there have been great changes there in the past twenty years.