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Article: Learning to play their cross-cultural cards right
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- November 3, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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CAMBRIDGE - Keiko Sakurai held up a business card for her
audience of 20 biotechnology managers whose company, Millennium
Pharmaceuticals Inc., was sold last year to a Japanese drug maker.
How they use their cards, she told them, is key to a good
relationship with their new bosses.
"This is like a personification of you," said Sakurai, a cross-
cultural trainer. "If this is bent or it has a fingerprint on it,
it's like having a fingerprint on your face."
The ultimate mistake is discarding a business card, Sakurai said,
recalling the time a US visitor dropped a client's card and failed
to pick it up. "It's like stepping on a Japanese person's face with
your foot."
Sakurai's counsel on card ...