When selecting a business partner, many companies pride themselves on getting a strong sense of the company with whom they intend to develop a working relationship. Executives conduct extensive research on these prospective partners to get a sense of their financial stability, product offering, competitive advantages and disadvantages and marketing capabilities. But, taking the time to explore the intricacies of a company's culture is equally as important, and often overlooked, especially when crossing international borders.

While revenues and profit margins remain the ultimate "bottom line" for a company, cultural values and beliefs, behavioral norms, and assumptions and perceptions also can have a huge impact on a business' success...or failure.

A company's culture is shaped by many elements -- the company, its product or service, its technologies, markets and competition -- but each organization's culture is also part of the societal environment in which it resides.

If you are considering conducting business in Israel, it is important to get a sense of the region's corporate culture and mores. Educate yourself on the pertinent issues that face you and your prospective business as well as the cultural intricacies of the organization. Effective communication is the key to creating a trusted working relationship free from cultural misunderstandings.

While there is no such thing as a "correct culture" or "incorrect culture", it is important to be aware of the differences that exist.

Want to learn more? We will be conducting a preparation workshop on "The Culture of Doing Business in Israel" in June for those companies attending the June Mission that will cover topics ranging from:

• How to make sense of language differences and gestures
  
• How commonly used phrases can be interpreted very differently -- for example, the expression "not bad¨ is considered to mean "pretty good" in Israel, but in the U.S. the connotation is not so favorable
  
• Business etiquette: The do's and don'ts of conducting business in Israel

For more information on the seminar, email vitts@viab.org.

Editors Note: The course will be given by Ms. Smadar Sabo, who is an expert in Organizational Behavior in Israeli companies. She has Masters' Degrees from Ben Gurion University and George Mason University.