Case Study - Business Consulting

Cross-Cultural Communication to Improve Team Work and Win Contracts

Client — A global provider of business consulting, systems integration, and managed services to corporations and government agencies

Strategic Goal

Improve the organization’s ability to communicate clearly, concisely, and persuasively with clients, management, and project team members located around the globe.

Communication Challenges

•	They serve clients in 28 countries.
•	Consultants may be assigned to projects in any of the 28 countries, thereby making it necessary to communicate with their project team members located anywhere in the world.
•	Although English is the common business language, consultants frequently have difficulty grasping complex, technical information expressed in their second or third language.
•	Consultants must write many different documents: email, internal and external proposals, status reports, slides for use in oral presentations, and project-design documents.

Solution

Booher’s solution included these steps:

•	Reviewing typical documents from several different countries
•	Recommending standard formats for various document types
•	Translating and localizing Booher learning materials to the local language and culture of each country
•	Recruiting and training facilitators to deliver Booher programs in the local languages
•	Presenting two-day, highly customized Strategic Writing™ workshops to teach principles of good writing, common to every language
•	Designing evaluation tools to measure effectiveness of the training
•	Coordinating training in these countries to handle all administrative details

Results

Formal surveys of participants in the training indicate a typical 20-40 percent reduction in writing time.