Everybody working in the 21st century is instantly global: you are on a conference call with your global team; your next big market is somewhere overseas; you are sourcing new talent abroad. No matter who you are, or what you do, today you are crossing cultures to do it. And while crossing borders today is easy, crossing cultures is hard: if you don’t get the culture right (and your competition does), you don’t win the business (they do).

Because we know that the needs of each of these groups can be very different, creating culturally competent CEOs, global managers, and home staff requires different kinds of support. In the past, there was typically only one way to provide cultural information, through a one-time trainer-driven event that provided good general background information about a culture, but at a high cost. Technology has certainly expanded our options, providing quick access to lots of (sometimes questionable) cultural information but often unable to insure that learners actually know what to do with cultural information in real-life situations.



© 2026. Dean Foster Global Cultures. All Rights Reserved.