Customer Reviews

Dun & Bradstreet's Guide to Doing Business Around the World

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When I saw the authors were the authors of "Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands" I immediately bought this book. It was disappointing, because the authors have shown they can write good books.

The biggest problem is with keeping current. (The authors allude to this issue in their preface.) This book was based on 1999 material and published in 2001. There's a lot of material that has very limited shelf-life, such as a list of government officials in Italy. They publish a list of national holidays for each country, listing both date and day of the week. (Where was their editor?) Obviously that information is only good for one particular year.

Treatment is superficial in many aspects. Under "currency" they only state the name of the currency, with no reference to pegging or exchange rate volatility. Under "Intellectual Property Rights" they discuss the treaties the country has signed. You would never learn there is an intellectual property issue in China from reading this book, because China has signed all pertinent treaties.

Their treatment of cultural issues is not structured. They list five cultural tips per country. These tend to focus on manners issues such as being (or not being) on time. I'm more attune to the method that Geert Hofstede uses in his books where he defines a cultural trait, discusses its implications, and then states how strong that cultural trait is in the country. For example, Hofstede introduces "power distance" as a measure of hierarchy and respect for authority. He then discusses implications for the decision making and negotiation processes. Finally, he gives the scores for each country, leaving the reader to draw conclusions. The authors of this book do discuss one cultural trait for all countries, defined as "Time." To them it means attitudes toward promptness. There is no discussion of the inverse relationship between attention to promptness and flexibility in scheduling, which is a hugely important issue in buying or selling.

Finally, and this is a personal issue because I am a purchasing consultant and educator, there is a heavy emphasis on selling in other countries but almost no attention to buying there. They could have given GSP-status for imports into the US, for example.

I recommend spending your money elswhere. Buy "Kiss, Bow" to learn about manners issues. Get "Culturegrams" to get annually updated information on history and geography. If you really want to study a country it will take more depth and more current material than this book carries.

Here is the best single-source I have come across thus far which provides information about trade opportunities, tariffs, risk factors, negotiating styles, investment climate, protocol, and cultural tips. (I refer to the revised and expanded version.) The authors discuss 40 countries (in alphabetical order, from Argentina to Venezuela), then provide five appendices: Contracts and Websites, Documents Used in International Trade, Abbreviations of International Organizations, Corruption & Bribery Index, and Conversion Factors. I am now convinced that almost every company throughout the world will eventually become involved, directly or indirectly, with e-business. Here is a comprehensive guide which contains invaluable information and hard-headed recommendations based on real-world experience. Other volumes are now available which provide more information about a single county (eg Stuttard's superb The New Silk Road whose subject is China) but none, to my knowledge, which is comparable in terms of global coverage.

This book provides valuable information on the social, political, economic and marketing aspects of the 40 major trading partners (countries) of the United States. It rates the credit worthiness of each country based upon its trade and monetary policies, climate for foreign investment, import duties and taxes, political climate, and attitude towards protection of intellectual property rights. It does an excellent job of addressing the cultural aspects of doing business abroad. Our staff uses it often as a resource for conducting international market research and working with consulting clients. Recommended for purchase by John R. Jagoe, Director, Export Institute