our corporation right operates around
the world and today nearly one-half of
our employees resides outside of the
United States
I joined Intel back in 2000 in Japan
because I wanted to see how it feels
like to be in a us-based global company
where I felt the women in Japan have
more opportunities when I joined I had
fair share of culture shock in my sight
the communication was not only in
Japanese but it was more reserved but
when I pick up the phone and I talk to
the global team in English I have to be
more more vocal and direct so I made a
conscious effort to go back and forth to
different types of communication style
so much so that I'm told by others I act
very differently when I speak in English
you know when I speak in Japanese and
even more when I was with a local
customers and partners my communications
and behavior had to follow more rigid
and traditional protocol you know like
like the order of sitting around the
table or how low you go in bowing or the
use of honorific language and I was
often the only woman in the room and I
didn't have the local female role model
to follow so I swung the pendulum very
hard to be overly polite to be careful
that made the gap between my English
communication and Japanese style very
very different so it was very
frustrating to me first but over time I
started to enjoy the ability to go back
and forth the cultures
I love the conversation I had with
global team very direct then I also had
an ability to build a very deep local
connections using Japanese culture so
gradually I got fluent at it and today
I'm not even conscious when I go back
and forth now I work in a two Pacific
region and I meet people with a variety
of different backgrounds and I got
curious how are they dealing with the
cultural tension of fusion especially in
emerging markets were the rapid economic
growth it's creating a significant
changes in their society so I went out
and spoke with a group of new employees
in Asia Latin America and Africa and
their various reasons were
people join our company it depends on
the countries like Brazil and India they
said you know the global company was the
way to go say fifteen to twenty years
ago and that's how they got started in
Africa some came from international
development organizations and they felt
it's time to switch to a commercial
company and recent college graduates in
China and India some of them had an
opportunity to join massive big local
enterprise but they chose the us-based
global company because they felt they
had more opportunity to be trained and
developed but also they preferred more
open and direct and less hierarchical
organizational style some societies
traditionally values stability in those
societies sometimes a carrier in the US
companies viewed a little bit risky a
woman in Asia faced with distance from
her father who wanted her to join a
government-owned company
she said her family believed the girl
should take up an easy job and stable
job and they thought the US company
would be too hard for her but she
finally convinced her father and join us
so just like her we attracted people who
liked our culture and the decision is a
conscious one especially for those whose
culture values more traditional
hierarchical organizational style now
even though they chose to integrate into
more open and direct environment there's
always a tension between local and
global culture many of them told me they
are told to be more vocal just like me
they are being coached to increase the
directness to match the culture we have
this practice called constructive
confrontation in a company right you
know that the sort of problems quickly
you're supposed to constructively
confront your counterpart if you do not
agree do not you know shove it under
drag solve it on the spot this is not an
easy practice in general but this is
particularly hard for the people in Asia
right I got the last good yeah because
we're taught not the challenger's
seniors or rock the ball
and he starts very early in his
childhood in a family or the school
education an aha moment came to a woman
when she saw two of her colleagues
vigorously debating about something in
the meeting but after the meeting she
said they were fine their relationship
did not break when asked if she
practices constructive confrontation she
said not yet I like to find a style
that's comfortable to me I'm a girl
right implying that he may take some
time for it to get going in Vietnam a
leader there intentionally encourages
debates and tried to demonstrate
constructive confrontation in front of
others to show that it's okay right
elsewhere people observed that employees
sometimes hold back their opinions
because they don't want to challenge
their boss they know it's the right
thing to do but they also acknowledged
very hard to practice especially in Asia
now once they outside of the corporate
environment they have to follow the
local protocol communications where the
directness or constructive confrontation
is not a norm at all for example in
India or many other cultures you have to
address your senior ranking business
partners with sir and Madam imagine that
the homes living there during world
right I guess will use different
communication style when we're at home
or when we at work but for these
employees there is added complexity you
claim them to do a lot of balancing acts
between local and global culture and
sometimes there is a pressure to do a
business in local way like providing
bribes and kickbacks and of course
employees must follow our clear policy
of doing business without most integrity
an African woman shared with me a story
with a laugh her business partner once
said you know she's black like us but
she thinks like a white person now she
must do a careful balancing act not to
damage the relationship so she will try
to avoid embarrassing a business partner
by casually mentioning her policy before
they're going today official meetings
many cultures are not used to dealing
with women
for entire business and a woman told me
a story when her customers directly
reach out to the u.s. executive because
simply because they're just not used to
seeing a local woman we're responsible
for business the u.s. executive politely
explained to the customer that she's
actually the one who is responsible for
the business in their country and all
communications must go through her the
sense of respect and impairments she
felt was great but at the same time she
must be very careful and also you know
maintain the local relationship not to
offend the customer now we hear a lot
about emerging markets in its global in
a global landscape and it's its economic
growth and sometimes it feels like this
place is such exotic markets halfway
around the world before talking to them
my assumption was that there would be
something very unique about their
experience but in the picture there
really was not people are people
consequences may vary but they they
chose a company that fits their beliefs
and values and they gave themselves an
opportunity to be trained and developed
in a global environment and they do a
balancing act between local and global
cultures to get things done just like
all of us who operates in non-us culture
and in the process they may speak a
dialect of global corporate culture but
they sure try very hard to practice its
core values and I think it's important
to note what connects global company
with various local cultures who operate
in is the the very balancing act
performed by the people on the ground
without them it's just not possible to
have a global footprint and I believe
this is sending a signal back to your
community and gradually shaping a global
corporate culture and it may not be
happening in a one-dimensional cultural
shift but it's almost like a
multicolored Luba cube-like phenomena
with in a many shades of interpretation
I asked a funny question to these
employees whether they feel stronger
affinity to their local sites or to the
cooperation many people took time to
think
because the line is so blurred
physically they belong to the local site
in their countries but every day they
have a contact with the people around
the world so the most frequent answer I
received or is I work for the
corporation but I just happen to work
out at the site one of them told me here
Mikiko you know you don't start
conversations with your nationalities
you know you're an employee first and
then you know people happen to have
different backgrounds locations or
accents so there is a global corporate
culture or the core value is shared and
practice but at the same time these
values reflect the evolving fusion of
the values we we take from our global
operations and the fusion is happening
in nebulous water and I don't know what
the future holds but one thing it's
clear to me is that passionate employees
around the world will surely continue to
shape it thank you very much