Risk

Travel for business in Japan is quickly becoming non-existent. Concerns about radiation, in-country transportation, and food contamination as a result of the nuclear crisis are causing corporate travelers to cancel trips to Tokyo and other Japanese cities.

The U.S. State department directive to avoid travel to Japan has multinational employers following their lead. Many companies are not only canceling scheduled trips, but are prohibiting travel for non-essential employees.

Companies that rescue corporate executives and business travelers are anticipating a wave of demand from clients as the rolling blackout and infrastructure problems move through the rest of the nation.

 Crisis management teams for companies with a major footprint on the Japanese economy are operating 24/7 to ensure the ability of expats and their families to evacuate.

While safety and security issues should always be taken seriously, the challenge is to balance such issues with the overt and covert messages risk management behaviors send across cultures. Company actions that are considered “prudent” for employed expats are often interpreted as “abandonment” by the local population.

New learning, new ideas, new processes can flow from situations of risk and uncertainty. The global workplace is where executives make a commitment to working interculturally in order to competently strengthen relationships while addressing difficult circumstances and issues.  

There are times when safety and common sense dictates “prudence.”  Fleeing a situation, or cancelling travel to an area sends a powerful message to those who are left to “pick up the pieces.”  Staying in a situation or traveling to a place that is "at risk”, to be “with the people” also sends a powerful message. Developing culturally intelligent leaders to work in a world at risk will increasingly challenge international organizations and business in the 21^st Century. 

Ubiquitous

I first saw the word "ubiquitous" on a billboard in Seoul two years ago describing ... well, something. Since that time, ubiquitous began to 'turn up everywhere' in the global marketplace and defines and describes a wide variety of diverse concepts and practices.

Ubiquitous technology is that which uses multiple devises to integrate information processes into everyday life, i.e. Apple, in the latest operating system just introduced the ability for me, the user, to watch TV, listen to music, and access video on any apple devices in my home--ipod, ipad, iphone, mac... just because ... it's home!

Starbucks, McDonalds, Gap, Wal-mart, Amazon and other retailers have effectively created a ubiquitous consumer culture in the pervasive presence of their products virtually anywhere in the world.

Global leaders are persons who not only are aware of their own cultural setting and traditions, but effectively navigate organizational culture, marketplace culture, and international cultural boundaries and challenges. Developing one's cultural competency requires one to engage in an ubiquitous experiential learning process that incorporates emotional intelligence, mental capacity, global perspective and an openness to new insight  across cultural lines. This cultivating of one's cultural intelligence is truly a ubiquitous adventure!