As a coach, I work with clients across the globe daily. We mostly meet virtually, by videoconference, phone and email. Many of my corporate clients, lead virtual teams and communicate through teleconference and videoconference as well.

Gallup reported in 2015 that 37% of American workers had telecommuted, and the percentage was increasing. According to Globalworkplaceanalytics.com:

• Fifty percent of the American workforce holds a job that is compatible with working virtually at least part of the time, and approximately 20-25% of the workforce telecommutes at some frequency.

• Fortune 1000 companies around the globe are revamping their spaces around the fact that employees are already mobile. Studies repeatedly show they are not at their desk 50-60% of the time.

Different media require different styles of communication

The tools we use to communicate influence the way we interact. For example, we tend to use short and abbreviated statements in text messages, while emails are more likely to be written in complete sentences, depending on our personal, corporate and cultural preferences.

Our cultural context also defines our communication style. Some people prefer to be more direct with their message, providing less context within a more informal writing style. Others prefer the opposite. They tend to be more indirect, with a desire for a lot of background information and a formal writing style.

Communication styles are also influenced by the organizational context. I recall my first few weeks as a junior staff member at the United Nations many years ago. I felt like an elephant in a glass house, as I was navigating and learning the diplomatic, formal and indirect communication style of my team.

Our emails were formal, starting with “Dear so and so,” followed by a long explanation and then a diplomatically worded proposal or request. Our team meetings were equally formal, as we all took turns speaking and no one interrupted the other. This was very different from the informal, almost chatty emails at my previous job.

Eventually, I did adjust and modified my communication style. Today, as I work globally and often virtually, I find I need to switch back and forth between different styles of communication several times a day.

Build better virtual connections with these useful tips

1. There’s more than one way to build trust

Successful client and colleague relationships are built upon trust. Cultures develop trust differently though, so you’ll need to adjust your strategies from one situation to another.

For example, some cultures focus more on what someone can accomplish within their area of expertise, while others prioritize the human relationship and who you are. It is therefore important to allow time and room for both perspectives as you interact virtually. You need to be aware of what your preference is and that of your client or team member.

If your client is from a culture that leans more towards the human relationship, e.g. Columbia, you’ll need to spend some time to get to know them. You could perhaps schedule a videoconference first, to create a closer connection. Talk about other matters than just the task at hand. A videoconference also allows for higher context communication, such as facial expressions and body language, which allows for a more intimate conversation even while working virtually.

If your team members are from low context and direct cultures with a task-based sense of trust, e.g. Germany, the Netherlands and Northern Europe, you can likely shorten the getting-to know-you stage and move to the task at hand sooner.

When you have a culturally diverse team to manage, you will need to use a blended approach of task and relationship-centered communication styles.

2. Proper speed and formality are key to productive emails and texting

Written communication can be quite the minefield as you work across cultures, as my own experience at the UN illustrates.

The North American style is generally informal; you address each other by first name, often with a hello, and go straight to the point rather quickly without much context.

Many Northern Europeans and the Dutch prefer to send rather formal emails, but without much “small talk” or personal information, and get to the point quickly.

Some more traditional and hierarchical cultures will prefer communication that is more formal, and places an importance on titles. For example, if you are communicating by email with a Japanese client, you need to pay attention to titles, such as san. You might also need to include a lot of detail in your message.

Make sure you research in advance how names are written and how you greet and address people. For example, in China you mention the family name first followed by the given name.

What should you do if you’re unsure? My advice is to start your interaction with a more formal communication style, like Dear…, followed by some introductory small talk before your get to the point. End with a formal sincerely or best regards, followed by your complete name. Pay attention to how your client of team member communicates with you and mirror their style.

Many millennials are used to brief text messaging in lieu of more formal emails. As they’ve entered the workforce, texting has become more common in the world of business as an easy and instant medium of communication.

Because of its brief and instant character, text messaging can easily cause cultural misunderstanding or confusion, especially if you are interacting or working virtually with someone more senior or from a more traditional culture. So use caution here, and again lean towards a more formal, explanatory style when in doubt.

Finally, how quickly you reply to a text or email message varies across cultures.

Americans tend to send brief and quick messages and expect an answer soon, within a few minutes or an hour. This is not the norm everywhere, so do not become impatient or read too much into a slower response time. One way to set expectations is to add a note to your email signature that informs the recipient of how soon you normally provide an answer.

Do you have any other tips, suggestions or stories? Let me know in the comments!

The post How should you adjust your international communication strategy when working virtually? appeared first on Trade Ready.

I believe now is the time to expand Canada’s trade and investment interests beyond the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and focus on Asia, which will be one of the sources of growth in the 21^st century.

Techniques To Identify Trade And Investment Opportunities

Expanding into foreign markets, especially Asia is a complex and resource-intensive activity.

You need to conduct sufficient market research, which will enable you to make better decision making, identity potential issues and threats, and minimize the risks involved in the internationalization process.

When examining the characteristics of your target market, including economic indicators, trends, qualitative and quantitative data, and other key market information, you need to break down the information by regions, sectors, and segments.

The granularity of the information will help you accomplish the following:

1. Identify where the right market opportunities are and the right geographic areas to target
2. Assess and comprehend growth drivers,  including consumer spending, fiscal spending by the government, interest rates, demographics, psychographics, regulations, and technology
3. Determine if your organization has the capabilities to pursue the identified opportunities

Food safety is a growing concern in the Chinese market.

The lack of trust among Chinese consumers for locally made food products has stimulated a strong demand for Western-made foods.

This pain point can be an opportunity for Canadian food and agricultural companies.

Given the country’s geographic size and multifaceted consumer population, you cannot treat China as a single market.

If you breakdown the food sector into sub-sectors, one of the most lucrative segments are infant nutrition and baby food products.

Approximately, 18 million babies are born every year in China, which is more than half the size of the Canadian population.

Given the lack of quality assurance among Chinese baby food producers, parents in China are willing to pay a premium to secure Western labelled baby food products that are deemed safe.

To put things into context, a 6 pack, 8 ounce baby cereal that has a retail price of $16 USD to $20 USD in North America would sell in China for $32 to $40 USD.

Breaking down the economic indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP) into geographic regions will present a different picture.

Guangdong province, which is located in the Southern part of China and home to prominent companies such Huawei and ZTE, has a GDP growth of 8.5 percent in 2013 and surpassed the national GDP growth rate of 7.7 percent.

If you look at the central part of China, the region is experiencing double-digit growth.

Now, if we look at China’s disposable income at the national level, it has grown significantly in the last 10 years from $1,510.72 USD in 2004 to $4,322.13 USD in 2014.

Categorizing this indicator by administrative regions, you will find the top five administrative areas in China with the highest disposable income are, in order, the City of Shanghai, City of Beijing, Province of Zhejiang, City of Tianjin and Province of Guangdong.

By using the granulating technique, we have identified infant nutrition and baby food products as lucrative markets.  We have also identified geographic areas in China which have strong economic activity and high disposable income.

Granulizing key market information has helped us identify market opportunities and short-list areas in which to potentially trade and invest.

For the purpose of this article, I only used a handful of market characteristics to demonstrate the value and importance of granulizing information.  In order to conduct a comprehensive opportunity identification and market assessment, you need to examine more market characteristics.

Assessment of driving forces behind opportunities

Finally, it is important to fully comprehend the driving forces behind the growth and opportunities you are examining.  This will help you assess and define your market size, market potential, sustainability of the opportunities, risks/rewards, derailers and other critical success factors.

I worked on a market assessment and sourcing project in 2011 regarding ASEAN’s secondhand market for mobile devices.  ASEAN or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is a 10-member trade bloc of Southeast Asian countries that promotes economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region.

In 2013, several ASEAN countries posted strong GDP growth with Cambodia at 7.2 percent, Indonesia at 5.78 percent, Malaysia at 4.7 percent, Philippines 7.2 percent and Vietnam at 5.42 percent.  The bloc will push for further economic integration by 2015.

The economies of ASEAN countries are consumer-driven. The region is also seeing an increase in its middle-class coupled with a population of 600 million that uses technology and mobile devices in its everyday lives.

This provides the right market conditions and opportunities for Canadian technology companies to pursue. Major growth can be found in the secondhand market for electronic devices, especially branded feature-phones and smartphones such as Nokia, Apple, Alcatel, Sony, Samsung and Blackberry.

Many Asian consumers see their mobile devices as an extension of their personal identity and social status. Owning a branded phone puts owners in better standing among their social circles.

However, despite a rise in disposable income, many consumers still cannot afford a new name-brand phone, thus fueling the demand for secondhand branded phones.

Although my market assessment and sourcing project focused on the Southeast Asian market, the results made me realize the significant opportunities in Asia’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.

The growth of Asia’s mobile market will spur demand along the value chain, including telecommunications equipment, wireless, wireline, software, and other back-end and front-end functions.

According to ROA Holding, an independent Tokyo-based market research and consulting company specializing in wireless and mobile markets in Asia, it is estimated that the total number of global mobile subscribers will reach approximately 7 billion by 2015.

Asia’s share is expected to be 65% of that number or 4.34 billion. Canada, being a global player in the telecommunications, wireless, software, and mobile technologies, is well positioned to pursue market opportunities in the Asian region.

Other secondhand goods that I have seen being sold in Asia include cars, cameras, laptop, MP3 players, tablets, e-readers, appliances, clothing, and furniture.

Canadian trade companies and Canadian entrepreneurs who are in a position to source used Western made goods and sell to Asia will stand to make profits.

To conclude, granulating market characteristics and economic indicators can help you find the right opportunities and the right geographic areas to target.

Furthermore, this enables you to assess growth drivers and determine your organizational capabilities to pursue the opportunities.

Do you have any other tips and examples on using such segmentation of market characteristics? Please use the comment section below to share how such techniques helped you identify and pursue trade opportunities.

The post How to break down market characteristics of your target Asian country to identify trade opportunities appeared first on Trade Ready.