There is a lot of talk today about being “global”. What does global mean? A person of the world? Every country is as different. So is every locality and city or town. The skills a business person needs to be successful in international business go beyond being global. While not comprehensive, this list based on over a dozen years of international business experience should help.TravelFor the international business person, travel is a way of life. Long distance air travel can be especially brutal. The best advice is to arrive one day before any important meetings or conferences to adjust to any time difference. In the air, eat, sleep, work and read but do all in moderation. Air travel gluttony is common among international travelers. The on thing you cannot do is exercise on an airplane.LodgingStay where your host, whether a local office or a client recommends. While cost is a consideration, so is safety, convenience to meeting locations and services provided. This is the home away from home so chose it with care.MealsEat in moderation. Business travel is not the time to make up for every diet that one has ever been one. There is the temptation to eat more than usual. On the other had, when with people who live locally, whether colleagues or clients, ask what they recommend when dining together. Apart from allergies, one should be open to eating local cuisine.DrinkingSome cultures drink more than Americans. Some drink less. And some not at all. The best advice is to drink in moderation or not at all. Similar to eating, international business travel is not the time to beat ones college drinking record. It is not healthy and it is insulting to clients and colleagues.DressMost American business people, even after the business casual trend, still dress much more casually than business people internationally. Find out from local colleagues or even clients what attire is appropriate. If you do not know, dress in traditional business attire (suits for men and for women). This can always be dressed down if appropriate. Dress like you mean business but more importantly, dress appropriately. The same applies to evening dinners and functions outside of business hours.MeetingsBe at meeting early. Do not leave until the meeting is over. Even if others leave to take calls, do not do so except at scheduled breaks. Eat in moderation if lunch is brought in. Do not drink too much coffee but bottled water is good. Clean up after yourself after the meeting. And do not sit in the meeting with your laptop and read your email. That is rude. Do make sure you bring plenty of business cards. Introduce yourself to everybody. Do not interrupt, raise your voice or swear. If you have other calls, schedule them for the evening when not meeting with the clients or your colleagues.RecreationIn the evenings it is common to have dinner with clients or colleagues. After dinner is often a time to relax, exercise and catch up on some work before the next day. If staying over a weekend or taking a day off, visit local historical sites, museums, cultural events and also shops and restaurants. Staying in the hotel doing work is not healthy and it does not make one more internationally-minded or cultured.CommunicationFind out how your clients and colleagues prefer to communicate when not face-to-face. E-mail is common today. Conference calls are important too. Video conference calls can be very effective. Snail mail and faxes are less and less common today but are still necessary from time-to-time. Keep all communications clear, crisp and to the point. On international conference calls, listen more than talk. And do not interrupt. Ever. Take notes or minutes and make sure they are distributed within one business day of the call. Never e-mail jokes, gags, anything obscene or off-color. Do not swear or raise your voice on calls or video calls. Listening and patience are valued in most non-US cultures.LanguageWhile most non-US business people speak 2-4 languages most from the US speak 1 or perhaps 2 and not well. To this end, speak clearly in English. Be patient if asked to repeat or explain. This is especially true on conference calls. It is acceptable to pick up local words or phrases. Make sure they are appropriate and that they are pronounced flawlessly. Do not make a joke out of local words or phrases. This is insulting to clients and local colleagues.While business has a lot to do with finance, technology, human resources, research and development and law, it has more to do with people than anything else. To that end, doing business internationally is about people. By traveling and working with dignity and respect for customers and local colleagues, one is taking the first step toward the extensive skills needed to be successful in international business.
US Markets in green on Friday; Dow 30 up over 345 points, Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500 up nearly 1%
US Markets were trading in the green on Friday with Dow 30 trading at 30,678.80, up by 1.14%. While S&P 500 was trading at 3,701.66, up by 0.98% and Nasdaq Composite 10,690.60 was also up by 0.71 per cent
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US Markets in green on Friday; Dow 30 up over 345 points, Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500 up nearly 1%
Earlier today, Indian stock markets ended the week on a winning note. It was the sixth straight gains for equity markets. Source: Reuters
US Markets were trading in the green on Friday with Dow 30 trading at 30,678.80, up by 345.25 points or1.14 per cent. While S&P 500 was trading at 3,701.66, up by 35.88 points or 0.98 per cent and Nasdaq Composite 10,690.60 was also up 75.75 points or 0.71 per cent. A Reuters report said that today’s strength was on the back of a report which said the Federal Reserve will likely debate on signaling plans for a smaller interest rate hike in December, reversing declines set off by social media firms after Snap Inc’s ad warning.
Source: Comex
Nasdaq Top Gainers and Losers
Source: Nasdaq
Earlier today, Indian stock markets ended the week on a winning note. It was the sixth straight gains for equity markets. The BSE Sensex ended at 59,307.15, up by 104.25 points or 0.18 per cent from the Thursday closing level. Meanwhile, the Nifty50 index closed at 17,590.00, higher by 26.05 points or 0.15 per cent. In the 30-share Sensex, 13 stocks gained while the remaining 17 ended on the losing side. In the 50-stock Nifty50, 21 stocks advanced while 29 declined.
Social Bookmarking and Facebook
Facebook has for a long time been recognized as the leading authority in social networking. This website was launched in 2004 and since then has enjoyed huge popularity among people of all age groups. Facebook soon became the social site of choice among online marketers. Webmasters and online marketers almost immediately noticed the power of Facebook and soon found new ways of using social networking to communicate directly with their target audience.I can be extremely difficult to improve that ranking of your web pages within Google and other search engines. Many webmasters and SEO specialist spend a great deal of time and money to improve these rankings. The popularity of Facebook can be well assessed from the Google page rank. Currently the Google PR Rank for Facebook is 10 out of 10 and it ranks among the top 5 most visited sites in almost every country in the world. (An estimated 40% of all global internet users visit Facebook on a regular basis). A back link from a PR 10 website can do well for your website. Facebook users are allowed a single do-follow link from their profile to a blog or website. By effectively using Facebook Social Bookmarking you can create significant buzz around your business / website / brand.Social Bookmarking can be defined as a way to save, organize and share valuable resource / info / websites that are available online. It is important to note that you cannot simply bookmark your own web pages repeatedly as this will look unnatural and often be flagged by the search engines. To gain real benefit from social bookmarking you’ll need various internet users to bookmark your pages. For your bookmarks to be authentic it should unique third-party visitors to your pages who decide to bookmark these pages. In your own social bookmarking it is important to not only bookmark your own pages, but also complimentary pages with similar information relating to your topic. Facebook bookmarking should be given the highest priority as there are many visitors who might like your webpage and can easily bookmark your page. I have noticed that some online advertisers try to create many different profiles for Facebook bookmarking purposes; this unfortunately does not have the same effect and attract negative attention from the search engines.A lot of marketers just use Facebook bookmarking to create links to their web pages, but there really is little benefit in just using it as a link building strategy. This could have a rather negative effect on your brand. A mistake that is often made is to only share your own websites. Remember that Facebook bookmarking always must look natural and really should include other related information and sites in your bookmarking lists, Always take special care to ensure these other website you are bookmarking at least relate to your website’s topic. If you do this, your bookmarks will be noticed by others. Always look at that the bigger picture, don’t just rush your social bookmarking as simply something that needs to get done. Another mistake made is automating the social bookmarking. As much as we all sometime try to find a shortcut, social bookmarking really does need to be done manually to ensure maximum impact and benefit, Note that it is not recommended to only bookmark your website’s homepage. If you’re linking only goes to your homepages you may find that not all you website’s pages are indexed by the search engines. It is recommended that you build links to the inside pages of your websites. Social Bookmarking with Facebook makes building these deep links very easy to do.Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites on the web today. Social Bookmarking is a simple way of getting your site seen by this very targeted audience. By defining specific goals and having a bookmarking strategy you can get maximum benefit from your Facebook campaigns. If you are just getting started in online business you may want to refer to strategies followed by more experienced marketers. You’ll benefit greatly from getting regular exposure on Facebook and getting actively involved in the discussions of related forums.Facebook bookmarking is a very old concept and millions of online marketers have been putting it to use for a long time, so you need to be up to date with latest strategies and ready to face the competition.