It is so crazy to believe we are already halfway through our International Consulting Project. It feels like just yesterday we had our very first introduction meeting where we learned about our clients for the first time. I can still remember how excited my group was to be planning an art show, writing grants, and taking over a non-profit’s social media platform. The first few weeks were a little tricky. Not only did we not have a relationship with the client, but we were also trying to get to know each other as a team. We were still telling fun facts and little, small talk before meetings and now here we are, week eight, and things are starting to happen.
Our group has met numerous times and has started to lay the track for what the rest of the semester will consist of. Grant writing and art show planning was all incredibly foreign to us, but we started to finally settle in on some of the logistics and are now making way for an exciting second half of the semester. Working with a global consultant posed challenges I was certainly not ready for, and on top of that, a pandemic driven world certainly does not help.
The first challenge and definitely the most prominent would have to be the language barrier. The main language in Cochabamba, Bolivia is Spanish and the people at CEOLI only speak Spanish. Thankfully, through Amizade we have people to help with translation along with team members who fluently speak the language, but that has been a divide for me personally. I feel like I can be missing some of the information, missing the tone at which they say something, and feeling a little distant from the client themselves. Growing up in an Italian household I had a small understanding of Italian, and now I am using that background to help pursue an Italian minor so Spanish was something I never learned growing up. Even in high school, I always took Italian to help translate more casually with my family. The language barrier has definitely been challenging. I tend to rely on my team members who do speak Spanish to help with note taking since they can directly translate from the client.
Through our presentations from Pitt Study Abroad I have learned about the Culture map and its different scales. The biggest cultural challenge I saw on this scale had to be in terms of trust. The one end of the scale has a heavy focus on business first and task-based conversations. For example, in the United States people are friendly in terms of the business they do together while countries like Nigeria are focused on relationships first. That level of trust is critical for them to be open and engage in their work. Bolivia falls farther on the relationship-based scale. This means they want to build a foundation in our relationship in order to open up to us and work together. In an online environment that has become difficult. I have found our meetings to be slightly more awkward since they cannot fully see our posture, our gestures, and it can be hard to interpret our tone. We have been trying as a group to talk about ourselves, themselves, and all those apart of the project to help build that relationship.
Gaining access to a laptop and Wi-Fi in some of the poorer areas of Cochabamba is very difficult. Ronald, the director of CEOLI, expressed that majority of the children and young adults who receive services through CEOLI are on the lower end of the poverty line. Previous International Consulting Groups were lucky enough to travel to Cochabamba where they were able to visit CEOLI, meet some of the children and young adults, along with those volunteering and working at CEOLI. Through the nature of an online semester, we are limited to how many people we have a chance to meet. Only those who have a reliable internet source or laptop, phone, or computer, can log onto our Zoom meetings. I am incredibly lucky to meet all those at CEOLI that I have so far but being able to meet the students and volunteers there would have been an incredible firsthand experience. Majority of our information has come from previous students: their pictures, blogs, and personal firsthand conversations.
Global business is very different than I imagined. I knew language would be a challenge to look out for but there is so many things we as consultants need to be aware of. The Cultural Map and the eight different scales have been one of the many things through the International Consulting Project and Pitt Study Abroad that I have learned. After being a member of the workforce in the United States, holding positions in multiple accounting and consulting firms, and doing business with hundreds of people across the country, I thought I would be ready to take on the challenge of an international consultant. I quickly learned that everything I knew needed to change. The style of business I did in my previous jobs would not have the same effect now. Non-profits in particular differ than for profits in many ways. The primary purpose for their operations lies with their values and the needs of those they are benefitting instead of profit. I learned that global business requires more than just an agenda, it requires preparation, teamwork, and an overall understand of the client and their goals.
Meeting with clients across the globe is most certainly a challenge. We only have the chance to meet with them a few times face to face (or screen to screen) so we have to do a lot of research and preparation to utilize the time given. Global business requires this preparation. I am learning the importance of having a game plan when going into a meeting, meeting with our team before hand to make sure everyone is on the same page, and then remembering to make sure we are leaving time for the client to pose any questions or concerns.
Working on this project has truly changed my perspective of global business. Comparing my group to others we all face different challenges. For example, the Germany group has to conduct business differently than the Bolivia or Trinidad teams. I have learned to adapt not only the way I communicate to the client but also how I present myself and our information. I have learned the importance of establishing tight relationships with clients. Through this experience I have already learned so much and cannot wait to see where the rest of the semester takes me and my team!