teaser why intercultural training

Why Intercultural Training?

today we find cultural diversity all around us; in business, administration, schools and universities etc.  

we cannot assume that our colleague, client or neighbour has the same view of the world, the same values and ethics as we have.

hence, intercultural competence is more important than ever.  awareness, understanding and the right strategy to act upon are crucial for success.

only then we can avoid incomprehension, frustration and excessive costs due to “trial and error” method!

Ensure success in different cultures

  • saving individuals and companies effort, time and money
  • increasing success rate and performance of employees / expats
  • minimising culture shock for the assignees and their families

Small investment, great returns

  • average international assignment cost to company ~ US$ 1 million per year
  • average cost to company for a failed assignment is up to 3 times the investment
  • average cost to company for cultural training as % of total relocation costs ~ 1% (costs vary between 0.01% and 1.44%)

Retaining valuable employees

Failure rate of international assignments*

~70% of international ventures fail
~50% of all expatriate managers fail (either return early or do not reach goals)
~48% of all returning employees leave the company within the first year
~90% of executives from 68 countries say intercultural management is their top challenge
~40% of multicultural teams fail (due to lack of cultural understanding and knowledge)

Reasons for unsuccessful assignments*

62% due to spouse or family’s inability to adapt
58% employees inability to adjust and perform
34% lack skills to conduct business in the host country
and insufficient selection standards (employee is not suitable for assignment i.e. personality and emotional immaturity or lack of motivation)
63% of assessed people have low motivation and interest to interact with other cultures 

due to the significant increase in intercultural education the failure rate for international assignments is on average 20% lower today than during the 1990s.

the importance of intercultural work and education is growing. the classic foreign assignment is changing – organisations becoming larger, projects abroad shorter, expats must be more flexible. plus 80% of millennials (generation y) want to work outside their home country by 2020…

* source : ernst&young, kpmg, pwc, eiu, dfa, harzing (intercultural research)