Meet the world at De Baak
Interview with Josette de Goede, director incompany and international affairs, De Baak, Management Center VNO-NCW
By Petra Baars
Dutch organizations are making their way in international business. Why do you think this is happening?
Josette: "Globalization is increasing rapidly. Nowadays, most companies—and even hospitals and governments—have international customers, suppliers and partners. You can see the 'global village' developing around you, and at the same time, you can see more local activities developing. The most important thing, though, is the speed and intensity with which the dynamic is evolving. Dutch companies find themselves dealing with a lot of new issues at the same time, and this has consequences for the way people behave in organizations as well as for the way organizations are structured and run."
Can you give us a few examples of these new issues?
"In actual fact, we're confronted with new questions. For example, how do you manage international teams? It's not only about managing multicultural teams, it's about diversity in general as well. And how do you do manage these diverse teams 'virtually?' After all, you don’t see everyone every month. Or how do you create the company culture you want in a company you're setting up in China, or in the former East Block countries? Setting up a company in a low-wage country is not all that special any more, and you probably want to work with the locals and even make some of them managers or team leaders. But how do you combine the cultural advantages of a country with your own company culture? Another important new question is: How do you build mutual trust if you don't see each other that often? It's easy to mistrust each other. And this doesn't only apply to international relations, but to Dutch relations as well."
What do you think collaboration is based on?
"Well, as I said, the new issues are about culture, management style and values, and, of course, about business. Companies want to make money, and to do that, you have to collaborate. What you often see is that collaborations get off to a good start but become more difficult as time progresses. It takes a while for a person's 'peculiarities' in the way they approach working conditions, collaboration, or value and chain management become apparent. For example, in the Netherlands —but I don't know if this applies to every company— we also take internal customers into account. When we deliver a product or a service, for example, we not only involve our own department, we immediately think about involving the other departments that are part of the production chain. In other countries it's not unusual for departments to focus only on their own output. Not because they don't want to work together or can't work together, it's simply more of a habit. When you do business in a foreign country, you have to be prepared for such things and be able to think and communicate in a different way. We know now that the consensus model has advantages and disadvantages, but I believe it's a strong legacy for communication and leadership because it adds value to collaboration. And good collaboration is the result of good communication. And even in the Netherlands it's still not easy to admit you made a mistake or that you aren't sure about something. In that respect, we're still 'searching' and 'learning' organizations. I'd be really pleased to see this attitude change within the next twenty years."