The importance of 'cultural competency' in today's world: A conversation with Melanie Chevalier

The importance of 'cultural competency' in today's world: A conversation with Melanie Chevalier:Reams have been written about how Facebook's grand plan to connect millions of Indians to the internet went horribly wrong and they faced one of their biggest setbacks ever. You would expect that a company of that size would know better than to trip on poor understanding of local culture and aspirations. As someone who started my working life in India, I have lost count of the number of times multinationals come in with a campaign or an idea that has worked for them in another market(namely HQ), that they want executed verbatim (an occasional client would consider language). While the world appears fragmented the reality is that we live in an increasingly interconnected world. And if we consider the local context and the UK it is more likely than not that your co-workers, employees, suppliers, customers are likely to be from different cultural backgrounds. The ability to engage effectively with people who are not like us or cultures that are different does not come naturally to everyone. Being able to successfully navigate internally and externally is a skill, it requires us to develop some level of cultural competence. My guest on this episode of The Elephant in the Room podcast is Melanie Chevalier, Founder of Creative Culture. Melanie set up her consultancy long before it was fashionable to talk about culture and cultural diversity. Her passion is rooted in her love for languages and her upbringing as the daughter of expats - living in Taiwan, Brazil, Cameroon, France, Spain before settling down in the UK In this episode we talk about importance for cross cultural understanding for businesses How important is language in understanding cultural nuances and barriers? Making sure local cultural insights are used at the design process of campaigns/processes. Rather than trying to fit it in at the last stage - when it is more likely than not that it is too late. How cross cultural understanding has moved up the agenda of the C-suite? What can organisations do to exhibit cultural sensitivity? Poor understanding and it's impact on the bottomline? We also speak about future tense languages, best practice, examples of those who are doing it right and what organisations can do to get started on their journey.