Friday, November 13, 2015

Going global or not?

What does it takes for company from non English speaking area to go global? Open minded employees, simply as that. The biggest thing that can push one company not to go global are actually it's employees in headquarters.

The management has open its mind towards new markets, they open mind towards new employees in new markets, they are doing everything right but it still doesn't feel right. Why is that? 

The most important thing for an employee in new company is to feel welcome and to feel part of the team. On first day of work everyone should feel welcome and that they have their place in the office or in the team. If company doesn't provide that on first day or during the first week it is quite hard to feel accepted later. 

As part of management team you need to lead your team in accepting different people from different culture, you need to engage more into team building, to talk more to ask more. The issue with most companies in Asia is that they go boom, they go global and they end up staying exactly where they are when it comes to their employees. They believe that practice they are doing at home base  is applicable in other offices too and that employees should follow blindly. Most of local employees in countries don't understand that concept. They don't understand the ways of the country that company is coming from. They don't understand customs, religious believes, language and many other things. If company is going global, employees in base office should see that too. 

Companies are usually sending experienced employees from base office to other offices to handle work. Those employees can outnumber locals and they end up grouping and not having any interaction with local employees. Even once in a while when they decide to socialize, the spirit is gone and those socializing events turn out to be dull and boring for locals. Of course, base employees are having heaps of fun since they are still speaking in their own local language and the food on the table is usually from their country since they are not willing to try any other food. 

The older employees are different. They are willing to socialize, to try new things and to help with work, but younger generations are quite closed and not willing to team up. It is quite lethal for the company because old one's will be gone and young ones will stay. 
Until now I believe you guessed I'm talking from personal experience. It has been a while since we had lunch all together in a meeting room. When we're going to meeting room, base employees go to another room to have lunch. They share their food, chit chat, laugh, ... the worst thing is that they make older employees feel ashamed. We already got used to it and we're living with it. 
Still it's quite down feeling when group of them (when I say group it's usually 10+) goes out to lunch together and they don't even bother to invite us. Not even for a sake of good manners. 

In their minds they are going global with the projects and new markets. In our minds they didn't move from the place they came from. 

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Srbi i vize... ili izbegavanje čuvenog FT1P

Ne znam za vas ali ja sam se poprilično izvežbala u ambasadama po zemlji i svetu. Uvek ponesem neki dodatni papir kad su u pitanju vize jer, ko zna zašto će mi trebati. Srećom u kancelariji imamo "recycle bin" pa ako nešto odštampam previše, neko će taj papir za nešto iskoristiti.
Nikad me nisu odbili i gomilu viza sam dobila po ubrzanoj proceduri pošto su mi svi klijenti megalomanski. Šta reći kad sam australijsku vizu dobila za 2 dana.
Mahinder je jako fina asistentinja u našoj firmi koja je zadužena za sve i svašta i nikad joj ništa nije teško da uradi. Razgovor juče je tekao ovako
Mahinder: Za Thai vizu ti treba formular, slika i kopija pasoša.
Marina: A da mi uradiš jedan onaj papir da sam ja zaposlena ovde? Kao potvrdu.
Mahinder: Aj dobro
Marina: Ja ću odštampati avionsku kartu i rezervaciju hotela.
Mahinder: Šta će ti to? Na sajtu ambasade piše da ne treba
Marina: Mani ti mene... samo ti meni spremi taj dokument

I odem ja jutros u ambasadu u 9 iako mi je rečeno da se otvara u 9:30. Uvatim svoje mesto u redu i iza mene se posadi Francuz i milion drugih ljudi.
Ulazimo u ambasadu i lepo piše "Ambasada sutra ne radi, ko aplicira danas, pasoši u ponedeljak".
Već vidim kako moj avion odlazi bez mene i kako plaže po Puketu i Phi Phiju se pretvaraju u još jedan dosadan produženi vikend u KL-u.

Marina: Dobar dan  (kez od uveta do uveta). Znate, ja imam bukiran let u subotu ujtru za Puket.
Službenik: Aha. Obično je procedura 2 radna dana a mi sutra ne radimo.
Marina: Pa znam ali ja bi malo na odmor, šef mi je konačno odobrio par dana off
Službenik: Vi radite u Maleziji?
Marina: Da, evo vam kopija radne vize, potvrda od firme, avionska karta i rezervacija hotela.
Službenik: Sedite, proverićemo dokumenta.
Sat vremena kasnije
Službenik: Dođite po vaš pasoš danas popodne
Marina: Hvala puno vrlo ste ljubazni

Za to vreme se Francuz posvađao 3 puta sa službenicima jer je i on trebao da leti sutra.
Pride se pojavila britanka koja je ostavila decu u Tajlandu i treba da ide sutra da ih pokupi.

Talenat kažem ja :)