Cultural insight.

Your article "Culture Shock" (March 2001) was very well written and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Mergers or acquisitions involving two companies with different cultures require a lot of preparation. I lead several of these international partnerships in India while working for an investment bank, and I used to make it a point to have in-depth knowledge of the other companies by studying the anthropology of the partners with whom we would be dealing. This gave us very valuable insight into the way that they would look at things. In Asia and in certain other parts of the world, it is of paramount importance to build relationships before embarking on the agenda. Both the parties must come down to the same level of comfort, which will build integrity into the relationship, or else there is considerable hidden distrust at the outset that can make matters rather acrimonious. Perhaps another point to consider is the moral tone of the corporation. If the foreign company can project a good moral tone, it makes it easier fo r itself in a foreign country.

Shankar Roy, CMA candidate, Management Representative and Lead Auditor, Quality Assurance Triton Marine Group, Vancouver, BC