Argentina Business Style
Doing Business in Argentina * I’ll give you a comprehensive description of Argentine business culture which will help you to understand and interact more effectively with your possible future Argentine clients and colleagues.
Background to Business in Argentina After decades of political and social instability, the country still has a number of strategic, bureaucratic and cultural problems which needs to be overcome by any outsiders who wish to develop successful long-term business interests in the country.
Historical factors have made Argentines unsure of the long-term and are often happiest when focusing on ‘quick wins’ and shorter-term issues. Secondly, personal relationships have always been of enormous importance in business dealings.
Argentine Business Structures Argentine society in general is very status conscious and that reflects onto their attitudes to business and corporate structures. Argentine companies are often what are usually referred to as relationship driven hierarchies which means that the chain of command will not necessarily correspond exactly to the actual internal structure of the business.
Argentine Management Style Position, dignity, personal style these are all key factors in Argentine management approach. It is important that the boss acts like a boss but in the same time managers and subordinates will develop very close personal bonds. The manager is expected to take a deep interest in the interests and well-being of subordinates.
Argentine Meetings Argentines prefer the spoken word over the written word, they also prefer face-to-face meetings to telephone conversations. By far the best way to develop good business relations in Argentina is to take the trouble to visit people. It is difficult to arrange meetings too far in advance, another example of Argentine short-termism.
Expect meetings to start with quite a lot of small-talk as an important element of the meeting and relationship building
Background to Business in Argentina After decades of political and social instability, the country still has a number of strategic, bureaucratic and cultural problems which needs to be overcome by any outsiders who wish to develop successful long-term business interests in the country.
Historical factors have made Argentines unsure of the long-term and are often happiest when focusing on ‘quick wins’ and shorter-term issues. Secondly, personal relationships have always been of enormous importance in business dealings.
Argentine Business Structures Argentine society in general is very status conscious and that reflects onto their attitudes to business and corporate structures. Argentine companies are often what are usually referred to as relationship driven hierarchies which means that the chain of command will not necessarily correspond exactly to the actual internal structure of the business.
Argentine Management Style Position, dignity, personal style these are all key factors in Argentine management approach. It is important that the boss acts like a boss but in the same time managers and subordinates will develop very close personal bonds. The manager is expected to take a deep interest in the interests and well-being of subordinates.
Argentine Meetings Argentines prefer the spoken word over the written word, they also prefer face-to-face meetings to telephone conversations. By far the best way to develop good business relations in Argentina is to take the trouble to visit people. It is difficult to arrange meetings too far in advance, another example of Argentine short-termism.
Expect meetings to start with quite a lot of small-talk as an important element of the meeting and relationship building