4 Step Guide to Contracting Opportunities for the Disaster Relief and Reconstruction Process
The federal government anticipates spending over $150 billion dollars for the Katrina and Rita hurricane disaster relief and reconstruction efforts. Contracting opportunities abound for businesses of all sizes and types and there is a great need for varied services and products. Businesses throughout the US can explore the contracting opportunities by following these four steps.The disaster-related services and products needed in the Gulf states will cover every aspect of life, bu

Date Stamp Transcript Embossers
Schools, universities, and many government agencies have a great need for date stamp transcript embossers. These machines can help emboss documents at a rate that would make manual embossing impossible. Most of the machines can make over 2,000 perfect embosses in an hour with a single touch of the date stamp transcript embosser or by a step of the foot pedal.These date stamp transcript embossers come with the state seal, text, and even custom seals that have artwork, for an additi

Business Process Management 101: BPM Defined
Lean enterprise and business process improvement, business optimization, cost cutting TQM, quality, Six Sigma, business reengineering and other such-like initiatives, falls within the cadre of business process management.It forms the cradle, feeding ground and impetus for making sense of, improving and capitalizing on the intricacies, dynamic elements and events that occur in our planning, conducting, practice and execution of modern business in the new economy and digital age.ons lies somewhere between 40-80%. If one were to define ‘failure’ as failure to increase shareholder value then statistics show these to be at the higher end of the scale at 83% (Cnnfn.com 1999). The facts highlight a worryingly poor success rate for international mergers and acquisitions. Why?

Many business commentators are now acknowledging that failure does not have its roots simply in financial, monetary and legal issues but in lack of intercultural synergy. Research suggests that up to 65% of failed mergers and acquisitions are due to ‘people issues’, i.e. intercultural differences causing communication breakdowns that result in poor productivity.

A recent example of such intercultural failure has been that of DaimlerChrysler. Both sides in the partnership set out to show that intercultural hurdles would and could be overcome in their global merger. Recent articles in the Wall Street Journal and Business Week suggest however that DaimlerChrysler underestimated the influence of culture, and due to culture clash, almost two years later is still struggling to become a unified global organization.

Such discourse is highlighting the need for more intercultural training both within the framework of mergers and acquisitions and for key personnel such as managers and HR departments. In both instances culture is being ignored rather than being embraced and used positively.

Piero Morosini, author of Managing Cultural Differences: Effective Strategy and Execution Across Cultures in Global Corporate Alliances, emphasizes that "misunderstood national cultural differences have been cited as the most important factors behind the high failure rate of global JVs [joint ventures] and alliances."

Morosini argues that when intercultural differences are ignored du

tercultural synergy. Research suggests that up to 65% of failed mergers and acquisitions are due to ‘people issues’, i.e. intercultural differences causing communication breakdowns that result in poor productivity.

A recent example of such intercultural failure has been that of DaimlerChrysler. Both sides in the partnership set out to show that intercultural hurdles would and could be overcome in their global merger. Recent articles in the Wall Street Journal and Business Week suggest however that DaimlerChrysler underestimated the influence of culture, and due to culture clash, almost two years later is still struggling to become a unified global organization.

Such discourse is highlighting the need for more intercultural training both within the framework of mergers and acquisitions and for key personnel such as managers and HR departments. In both instances culture is being ignored rather than being embraced and used positively.

Piero Morosini, author of Managing Cultural Differences: Effective Strategy and Execution Across Cultures in Global Corporate Alliances, emphasizes that "misunderstood national cultural differences have been cited as the most important factors behind the high failure rate of global JVs [joint ventures] and alliances."

Morosini argues that when intercultural differences are ignored du

all Street Journal and Business Week suggest however that DaimlerChrysler underestimated the influence of culture, and due to culture clash, almost two years later is still struggling to become a unified global organization.

Such discourse is highlighting the need for more intercultural training both within the framework of mergers and acquisitions and for key personnel such as managers and HR departments. In both instances culture is being ignored rather than being embraced and used positively.

Piero Morosini, author of Managing Cultural Differences: Effective Strategy and Execution Across Cultures in Global Corporate Alliances, emphasizes that "misunderstood national cultural differences have been cited as the most important factors behind the high failure rate of global JVs [joint ventures] and alliances."

Morosini argues that when intercultural differences are ignored du

nored rather than being embraced and used positively.

Piero Morosini, author of Managing Cultural Differences: Effective Strategy and Execution Across Cultures in Global Corporate Alliances, emphasizes that "misunderstood national cultural differences have been cited as the most important factors behind the high failure rate of global JVs [joint ventures] and alliances."

Morosini argues that when intercultural differences are ignored during the evaluation and negotiation stages of a merger, integration inevitably fails. He adds that the manner in which an organization handles intercultural challenges is directly correlated with the performance of the merger in the post-integration stage and can mean the difference between long-term success or failure.

If intercultural understanding is to be recognised within the systems of processes of mergers and acquisitions, staff training is critical. It is the leaders, managers and HR personnel of companies that must have intercultural competency. However, it appears that companies are not investing enough in intercultural, or for that matter any, training.

In the Business Energy Survey, October 2004 (Adecco and Chartered Management Institute) where 1,500 managers were surveyed only a third had received training in the last 12 months. If management are receiving such low levels of support one can assume that other functions are receiving as much or even less.

Companies must start to become more aware of these deficiencies and their possible future impacts. If the mergers and acquisitions of the future are to prove fruitful , companies must design and implement comprehensive intercultural training programs for staff; assess and tackle possible areas of intercultural difficulties prior to, during and after mergers and put into place mutually agreeable intercultural frameworks of understanding to act as guidelines for post-merger synergy.

These tasks should not be seen as reactive, damage limitation exercises but as a positive, proactive means of creating cohesion, maximising efficiency and building a competitive advantage.