IN A DE-GLOBALIZING WORLD, DO CULTURAL DIFFERENCES MATTER ANYMORE?

When globalization began, businesses had to learn about other cultures in order to work better “out there”. So, in the new de-globalizing blue and red world, do cultural differences no longer count?

Over the last few decades, cultural competency and cultural expertise became a recognized requirement for working abroad. As the world globalized, we learned, first, that the way work was done “out there” was different, and that, second, understanding those differences was key to succeeding in this new, “globalized” world. Those who managed to do this well, who developed the “cultural competencies” required to work beyond their borders, flourished, and those organizations and individuals who did not learned the hard way that they needed to. Cultural differences, and the skills required for managing them effectively, was on the conference table.

However, the current de-globalizing world, the result of national populist movements as reflected by Trumpism in the US, Brexit in the UK, Putin in Russia, etc., inherently questions the very value of a globalized world, and sees more downside than up to reaching across border walls for new markets, expertise, labor, etc. In this national populist view, national borders should define marketplaces, border walls are better than bridges, and global business is generally…