The Legal Landscape

As long as your business crosses borders, you will be subject to many laws, tax rules, and numerous regulations surrounding trade in different countries. It doesn’t matter whether you’re running an online store or are a large multinational corporation. This compliance is challenging in the sense that it changes from country to country and requires you to keep up with different jurisdictions in order to ensure your business is always operating within the law.

Communication and Technology

One of the greatest challenges facing companies that have staff and operations across borders is having a centralized communication system that makes it possible to compare notes across physically distanced departments and branches.

If you run different technological systems in different parts of your company, then it might be a challenge to synchronize them and enhance communication within the company. This can lead to a decline in efficiency and even hurt the sales and profitability of the company.

Environmental Conservation

Most of the world takes a keen interest in conserving the environment and reversing the effects of global warming. Your impact on the environment is, therefore, something you should consider no matter where in the world you go.

Different countries will generally have different rules surrounding such issues as energy consumption, recycling, and green packaging, all of which you must incorporate into your business operations in these countries. If you’re planning on opening branches in any of these countries, you should undertake careful planning in the design and construction of your buildings so as to create an environmentally-friendly office.

4. You are a corporate culture specialist. Highlight the challenges a company operating in multinational settings may face\ is likely to encounter.

Managing multicultural teams can present its own unique set of challenges and obstacles. Not only will you have to effectively manage language barriers, but there are also cultural and training barriers to overcome, as well. What may make sense to employees from a Western culture may not make sense for hires from Eastern cultures. We often of miscontrue people’s behaviour from other cultures and spend invaluable time on sorting out misunderstandings and setting expectations. The right solution to all of these types of challenges requires careful thought, cultural understanding and dexterity, and a highly diplomatic approach.

1. Language Barrier

The way we speak, and the words we use, are tools we use to convey our feelings, hopes, and dreams. We are all tied to our language, which is why it can be difficult traveling to a foreign country where most residents speak a different language. Now, imagine managing a multicultural team where many of the members speak a different language.

The main language spoken at the office might be the second or third language for some employees, so they might not understand colloquialisms.

Moreover, they can unintentionally take slang and jokes the wrong way since they would interpret them in a very literal context. Not to mention, team members who are not fully comfortable in the language spoken at the office may feel out of place and less inclined to share their opinions.