An interesting article over on the BBC news website discusses the differences between the German and English languages, and the way in which we use words and phrases. However there’s one particular paragraph which caught my eye, it relates to the take over of Rover by BMW in 1994: “When BMW bought the British car manufacturer, Rover, it took a while for the seriousness of some of the problems at Rover to sink in. All too often, British managers spoke in euphemisms that their German counterparts took at face value.”
Basically the German bosses, if told in a slightly sarcastic manner; “we have a couple of small problems”, wouldn’t catch the understated seriousness of the issue. They would take it as face value that there are literally just a couple of very minor problems and there’s nothing to be concerned about!
Now Rover clearly had many and varied issues when it finally went under, and BMW were successful in off-loading the Land Rover part of the company for £1.8 Billion ($2.9 Billion at today’s exchange rate) to Ford in 2000, as well as turning the MINI into a highly profitable brand which they retained. But its interesting nonetheless that just minor differences in the way we use words, caused confusion amongst some of the world’s biggest companies.
And if cultures like Germany and the UK, which in many ways are extremely similar, can have problems. Then the chances of a similar misunderstanding is all the more likely when polar-opposites like the US and China do business. US car manufacturers are currently having a turkey-shoot in China, but if or when cracks start to appear, will cultural differences compound problems and slow down any response?
Have a read of the article. It’s interesting stuff: German V British manners
