When I traveled to the Swedish factory in Perstorp, I flew to Copenhagen and then drove from there in a rental car over the beautiful Öresund Bridge via Malmö to Helsingborg. Overnight stay there and the next morning the short distance inland to Perstorp. Self-organized and mostly alone. Meetings the next morning.
In contrast, my journey to Tarragona was planned by the site administration. After the flight to Barcelona, the chauffeur met me at the airport to take me to Tarragona in less than an hour’s drive. The site leader was already waiting for me at the hotel, where we spent the evening together in a carefully selected restaurant.
This narrative is correct, but still a little colored. In fact, there were also occasions when the Swedish site leader and I discussed topics over dinner together or when she picked me up from the airport. If so, however, she had a post-it on the steering wheel with the most important bullet points, which we were able to discuss while driving. Every minute should be used efficiently.
And the fact that it was a female site leader in Sweden is no coincidence. The leadership in Sweden was often in female hands. There was the site leader and the production manager also switched cheerfully between female and male.
The offices in Sweden, including that of the plant management, were simply furnished and of an moderate size. IKEA style with lots of wood. Beautiful. In Tarragona, the office of the site management was representative. Large desk, plenty of space and shiny polished floor tiles. The external appearance delivers also a message.
And the course of the meetings?
In Perstorp, I applied my 3-second rule. In other words, I often had to wait three seconds before I got an answer to a question asked. Be able to endure silence. Three seconds felt like an eternity to me. When I got used to it, there were quite lively discussions. Lively, in the Swedish sense of Perstorp. It’s completely different in Tarragona. Often there was a colorful mess. Many wanted to contribute something and, above all, immediately and quickly. Enjoyable.
For me, these described differences quickly became normal. I appreciated both. Just as it was culturally different. I was an observer and could and wanted to get involved with the local people quickly. And I had studied information about the cultural classifications. In the graph of the Lewis Model, Sweden is on the “linear-active – reactive axis”, while Spain ranks practically at the “multi-active” vertex. So very far apart, see the red arrows of the graphic. Differences were very expected.
But now imagine the following example of thinking. We are planning a job rotation and handing over the responsibility of the Tarragona site to the Swedish leader and that of the Perstorp site to the Spanish leader. In a global company, whose headquarters may be far away and outside Europe, such thoughts are by no means absurd and are implemented from time to time.
One can do that, but it is important not to underestimate the cultural differences and to manage expectations accordingly and to prepare and implement appropriate training. And this applies to the managers to be transferred as well as to the local organizations. Here is, where we find the gaps to close.
