The Culture Map: Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures

by Erin Meyer

Why do people in cultures like Nigeria, India, or Argentina invest so much time in relationship building? Is it simply that they are inefficient or prefer socializing to working? There is, in fact, a very clear, practical benefit to investing in affective relationship building—especially when working in emerging markets. This brings us back to the business value of trust. Suppose you are the Danish owner of a business that designs women’s purses. You sell two hundred purses wholesale to a shop that has just opened on the other side of Copenhagen. You give the retailer the purses, and he promises to pay you next week. How do you know you are going to get your money? The answer, of course, is that the shop owner signed a contract promising to pay you. If he doesn’t pay, you can take him to court. Having a signed agreement in a culture with a consistently reliable legal system makes it possible to do business easily with people you don’t trust or even know. Now imagine the same situation—only this time you are Nigerian and designing women’s purses in Lagos. The legal system in Nigeria is less reliable than the one found in countries such as Denmark, the United Kingdom, and the United States. You can sign a contract, but there is no way of enforcing it if the payment doesn’t come through. The only way you feel assured that you’ll be paid in countries like Nigeria is the trust you have in the other person. Perhaps he has done business with your brother for years and your brothe...

Why do relationship based trust exist in emerging markets?