I fell foul of my own pet hate last week.  I came out with one of those I-am-listening-I-really-am-but-you're-just-plain-wrong responses.  Whilst he has yet to change my mind on the subject, my friend has certainly given me food for thought: am I as good a listener as I like to think?

This has led me to reflect on the importance of good communication.  As a modern languages student I fully appreciate the need to understand as well as be understood.  Having spent the last two years living and working in a non-English speaking environment, I have had my fair share of 'lost in translation' moments which on occasion have resulted in anything from mild frustration to utter embarrassment. 

This week I have observed the significance of effective communication in a business context.  Wood Group PLC has a fairly complex multinational set-up that consists of a number of different departments, each of which is made up of several further business entities.  What is most surprising perhaps is the fact that WG has acquired rival companies and allowed them to remain in direct competition.  This makes for an interesting relationship which has a profound effect on how much one business chooses to communicate with another.  While I appreciate the benefits in doing so -maintaining a larger slice of the market, retaining existing staff, etc. - I wonder if such a reluctance to communicate openly might have a wider impact on such companies.

Effective communication however is not always easy.  Bill Cochrane, Director of Field Operations Development for Wood Group Production Facilities, was kind enough to talk to us this week about the implications of cultural differences.  The 'Lunch & Learn' gave us each an insight into the way in which certain nationalities typically communicate, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of each.  It appears that as a global enterprise WG is not only conscious of such differences but respectful of them in a bid to manage foreign projects as efficiently as possible without upsetting the status quo.

On a lighter note though, I'll leave you with a few amusing anecdotes I found online where businesses have failed to get the point across thanks to cultural and/or language obstacles.  Enjoy...

"Traficante", an Italian mineral water, was poorly received in Spain after it was discovered that the brand name directly translates as "drug dealer".

A nice cross cultural example of the fact that all pictures or symbols are not interpreted in the same way across the world: staff at the African port of Stevadores saw the "internationally recognised" symbol for "fragile" (i.e. broken wine glass) and presumed it was a box of broken glass. Rather than waste space they threw all the boxes into the sea.

Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: 'Nothing sucks like an Electrolux'.