To: President, XYZ Corporation
From: Foreign Relations Director
Date:
Subject: Important Info for your Business Trip to Mexico
On Thursday, October 20, you'll be taking a one-week business trip to Mexico to meet with our potential clients there. As you have never visited the country before, I have prepared a short report for you on what you will need to know so as not to offend anybody.
Business Relationships
Mexicans place a good deal amount of emphasis on personal relationships. The key to a successful business trip to Mexico is establishing a close relationship with the client. Good personal relationships are the basis of business success in Mexico. In Mexican business culture, interpersonal skills such as "fitting in", cultivating relationships, and, most importantly, winning the favor of others, are sometimes considered more important than professional competence or experience.
Mexicans prefer to do business only with people whom they "know". Getting to "know" the clients will be a difficult task especially on your first trip. Because establishing close relationships, trust, and favor are so important in Mexico, it may take many return trips to Mexico to build these bonds.
You'll find that Mexican business culture has a warm, friendly relaxed atmosphere, with a slower pace. Mexican men are warm, friendly, and may initiate physical contact. They often touch shoulders or hold the arm of another. Withdrawing from these affectionate gestures can be perceived as an insult. Personal space is not as important in Mexico as it is in the United States, therefore they may be only inches away when they talk to you. To avoid insulting them just relax and speak normally.
Many Mexican companies are family owned, and because families play such a dominant role in Mexican society and have such a large influence on individual behavior it is wise not to ignore or overlook any person in the meetings you will attend. Because Mexicans value close personal relationships, many extended families can include college friends and business associates.
Business Attire
The Business Attire in Mexico is similar to that of the United States. Standard office attire for women includes dresses, skirted suits, or skirts and blouses. Femininity is strongly encouraged in women's dress. However nothing revealing should be worn in public or to a meeting. Women business travelers will want to bring hosiery and high heels. They will also appreciate a light coat for evening wear.
One of the most fundamental institution of colonial Mexico was the family. According to Mark A. Burkholder and Lyman L. Johnson, “‘family’ in this context meant not only the biological family, but also the larger set of family relations created by marriages and by forging alliances through the selection of godparents…”. The nucleus of the family was the father who exerted a great deal of power over other members of the family. Both, men and women were control by their fathers but, man were given certain liberties that were not presented to women. For instance, Susan Socolow mention that “daughters had to be controlled, and the...
According to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Mexico has high scores of Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Masculinity. We can tell from the scores that Mexico is a hierarchical society that people tend to work and live in orders, which means that there are levels among people and they try to fit into their own positions; people try to avoid unknowns and unwilling to take risks; and gap of values between men and women does exist in Mexico, competition, achievement, and success are emphasized in this society so people want to be the best instead of liking what they do. With low scores of Individualism and Long-term Orientation, Mexico is considered a collectivistic society with a normative culture. It emphasizes loyalty and strong relationships
I not only had the influences of the Mexican culture, I was able to experience the good old fashioned American family values as well. My mother was the heart of the family. She was the one who cooked, cleaned and cared for her children full time. My father was generally the one in charge and took care of many of the decision making scenarios.
In conclusion, for many, Mexico is simply a country on a map. Even becoming a place that they wish to keep from and forget. For others like me, however; it was a place that hasn’t only reconnected me with my culture, but a home where I had the good fortune of reuniting me with my loved ones. Also, having had helped me come to terms with myself, my trip allowed me to find myself and recover what I had left
As a traditional, collectivistic cultural group, the Latino population is believed to adhere deeply to the value of familismo. (Arditti, 2006; Calzada, 2014). Familism is an emphasis on the importance of the family unit over values of autonomy and individualism”. (Santistaben, 2012). Family is considered to be the top priority in the Latino culture. Comparatively, at times, this isn’t true of our busy, work devoted western culture. In western culture we think of our family in a nuclear sense made up of a: mom, dad, and siblings. Conversely, Hispanic culture focuses on the whole extended family including aunts, uncles, grandparent, and cousins. Their culture believes having close connections with the entire extended family benefits the development of their children. The entire family helps the child by giving them differing levels of social and emotional support. (American Home Resolutions,
The economy of Mexico is vastly diverse, much like that of the United States. Mexico has many different sources of economic revenue including tourism, oil, agriculture, and the automobile industry. The USDS website reports the percentage breakdown of Mexico’s gross domestic product (GDP), with the largest portion (61%) coming from the service sector. The site defines the service sector as commerce and tourism, financial services, transportation and communications. In 2010, Mexico attracted 21.3 million tourists, making it the 10th most visited destination in the world. The remaining portion of GDP is broken down between industry and agriculture. Industry accounts for (31%) of GDP and is defined as a combination of food and beverage, tobacco, chemicals, iron and steel, and others. The remaining 5% of GDP comes from agriculture, with the top three crops being corn, wheat, and soybeans. Mexico also has a variety of natural resources including petroleum, silver, copper, and gold, which is included under...
Mexico is boarded by the United States of America, Belize and Guatemala. Mexico has a very diverse landscape of mountains, plateaus, deserts, tropical jungles, and even beautiful Palm beaches. With its diverse climate, Mexico also has a diverse population of plants. In desert areas, the most common plants that are found include cac...
I come from a Mexican family of four. My brother and I were raised as Mexican Americans. As my parents’ only daughter, their teachings has made me who I am today. In this class I have evaluated my relationship with my family. I learned how their culture has influenced my upbringing, what type of relationship we have and how to communicate properly.
Crouch, Ned. Mexicans & Americans : Cracking The Cultural Code. NB Publishing, Inc., 2004. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 21 Nov. 2011.
I come from a Mexican family. This has shown me the many similarities, as well as differences in a Mexican family compared to an American family. From a young age we are taught that the value of family is the most important thing in the world. Most Americans encourage their children to move out after graduation from either high school or college, Mexicans believe that their children should live with them until they are married or around the ages of 25-30 years old. The most important family member in the Mexican family are the elderly. They are given special treatment and attention. For example our beliefs is that the elders shouldn't go to retirement homes. They are welcome in the family and are cared for until there last days. Grandchildren are taught to be respectful and to aways Listen to the elders, especially if they're your grandparents.
In economic terms, Mexico is a country that was showing a lot of promise, but has taken steps backwards in recent years. Mexico’s recent history has been marked by periods of growth and increasingly favorable business conditions that have been followed by periods of political turmoil and decreasing confidence in the country’s economy.
Culture is customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group. It includes behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, values, and norms that is shared by a group of people to sustain their lives. Mexican culture is influenced by their familial ties, gender, religion, location and social class, among other factors. Today life in the cities of Mexico has become similar to that in neighboring United States and Europe, with provincial people conserving traditions more so than the Mexican living in the city. In the United States Mexican includes any person of Puerto
This paper intends to provide the necessary details such as customs, etiquette, mannerism, and culture of doing business in Mexico
The rest of the book is spent discussing each of the countries in detail. For each country the authors give a brief explanation of the history of the culture. Then they give tips on what each country expects from a visiting businessman. This includes tips on whether or not it is okay to be late for meetings, proper behavior during a business lunch or dinner, and how to properly address people you come in contact with during your business trip. They also give a guide t...
The use of cultural anthropologists has proven beneficial for companies like Google, Intel, and Microsoft in implementing their business models in other countries (Baer 2014: 1). During a meeting with a Mexican supplier, Ted offended the visiting businessman by refusing to go on a tour of the city offered by Manuel. In past oriented countries such as Mexico, sharing cultural history is a very important factor, and is usually shared by the business host. This also shows the differences between the monochronic ways of the United States and the polychronic thinking that Mexico uses.