One of the nation’s top advertising professionals will tell Iowa businesspeople tonight (Wednesday) in Des Moines how they can help improve international relations. Keith Reinhardt, chairman of one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, says travelers from the U.S. often offend their hosts with their ignorance of manners and customs, and their inconsiderate behavior.
The ad exec says right now, this country isn’t too popular in other countries.
Many disagree with U.S. foreign policy, but he says in addition there’s a widespread perception that we’re cultural imperialists — that we exploit other people and promote values that don’t suit the social norms of other countries. He says they think that Americans, as a people, “are not only loud and arrogant and totally self-absorbed, but also ignorant.”
Reinhardt, who’s also president of “Business for Diplomatic Action,” says there are big U.S. companies that get more than half their revenues from outside the United States. They employ local people in those countries, though, to help them with their business strategies and plans. So those American multi-national companies have learned to work successfully across borders and also across language barriers and cultural differences.
Reinhardt says American business also knows how to work efficiently and help people from different countries accomplish common goals successfully. Reinhardt says those multi-nationals employ 8-million people outside the United States and six-Million of those are local nationals. He says those employees are sensitive to local customs and cultures.
Reinhardt’s message is that business people and regular citizens can do a lot to improve relations with other countries just by learning more about other cultures and knowing how to deal with people when they’re in other parts of the world. He says his own ad agency, D-D-B Worldwide, has offices in 96 countries. Reinhardt speaks to central Iowa business leaders tonight (Wednesday) at the Des Moines Embassy Club, an event sponsored by the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy.
Related web sites:
U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy