UK Cultural Awareness Training

UK Cultural Awareness Training

Despite Brexit, the UK remains one of the world’s largest and most dynamic economies. The UK is a world leader in a number of key service sector specialties such as finance and the law and has a vibrant Tech sector which looks likely to explode over the coming years. Many of our clients are UK-based organisations or overseas companies with a significant interest in the UK economy. The ability to collaborate seamlessly with the UK will continue to be a pressing need for many businesspeople.

However, the UK is a complex cultural landscape from a business perspective and those businesses and business executives who wish to be successful there need to factor in an understanding of the approach to business they are likely to encounter.

Global Business Culture runs UK cultural awareness training courses on a regular basis, and in our experience, clients tend to have a variety of business interests in the UK which roughly fall into the following categories:

Clients who are UK-based with overseas offices

We run regular ‘Working with UK’ cultural awareness training courses in the international offices of UK-based clients. These training courses are designed to give international colleagues a better insight into key British cultural approaches to business. Many aspects of the British approach confuse international colleagues and greater understanding can lead to much more efficient cross-border collaboration.

Clients who have been acquired by a UK parent company

The companies which have been acquired by a UK parent company usually want to look at developing a greater level of understanding of the key business drivers of contacts back at their new HQ in the UK. They feel they need to be able to persuade and influence their bosses back at base in a way which will allow them to continue to develop the local business in the way they feel is most effective for the business – they tend not to want to be guided by people in the UK who they feel might not fully understand their market.

Clients with supply chain interests in the UK

Many businesses rely heavily on supply chains which are embedded in the UK. The relationship in the UK with these supply chain contacts, therefore, becomes critical for their business and people realise that a good understanding of the UK business mindset can help them improve communication, interpersonal relations and process efficiencies.

Clients with subsidiaries in the UK

Many US, European and Asian clients have long-standing UK subsidiaries and they feel the need to better understand the mindset of their local UK colleagues so that they can more effectively help them embrace common corporate culture, goals and values. Getting buy-in to projects and new processes is not always easy and a greater awareness of the local UK ‘hot buttons’ can be enormously helpful.

Clients looking to develop the UK as a market for their goods or services

The potential of the UK market remains buoyant, but the UK is a well-developed and highly competitive business environment. Succeeding in the UK as a foreign entrant into the market is not a simple task – and there have been many high-profile failures. If you want to succeed in the UK market, you need to understand the local UK environment and you need to understand the UK approach to business.