TOP TEN CULTURE TIPS FOR DOING BUSINESS WITH BRAZIL.
Carnival is over. Time to get down to business in Brazil. And that starts by sorting out some major cultural differences.
Did you samba the final night of Carnival away in Rio last night or did you dig into all five questions from yesterday’s BRAZIL CultureQuiz? If you were in Brazil, no doubt you were samba-ing with one hand on that additional caiparinha and you missed the Brazil Culture Quiz. Good for you, (but it’s still not too late to have a look at that Brazil CultureQuiz today!)
And in preparation for getting down to some real business in Brazil now that Carnival is over, I thought summarizing the absolutely Top Ten Tips for working in Brazil today might be helpful.
So here you go: your important Top Ten tips for successful work with Brazil, beginning with #10!:
#10. Note that there is a sometimes not-so-gentle rivalry between Paulistanos and Paulistanas (the people of Sao Paulo) and Cariocas (the people of Rio de Janeiro), Brazil’s two largest cities. Paulistanos often see Cariocas as too laid back and ready to drop work for a game of volleyball on the beach, and Cariocas often see Paulistanas as too business-focused, sacrificing the easy pleasures of daily life for hard-earned money. The evidence is everywhere: Cariocas typically start work later, take longer lunches, and many do, in fact, play volleyball on the beach whenever possible. In Sao Paulo, lunch is typically, well, noon to 1 pm, meetings tend to start and end “on time”. And there is no beach. For both cities. once a meeting is set, confirm the date and time as it approaches. Send an agenda ahead of time, but keep it very general with time-frames being seen more as a guide than an absolute; at the meeting, expect discussion to flow in all directions. Adjust your clock, and your attitude, accordingly, when doing business in either of these two amazing cities. And remember, Brazil is a huge country, with much diversity amongst its many regions, and differences abound between many of its cities.
#9. Never use the U.S. “OK” circle, the thumb-to-forefinger hand gesture. In Brazil, this is very vulgar, and is definitely not OK!
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