AN AMBASSADOR MEETS WITH BUSINESSMEN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00475R000102120002-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 6, 2014
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: November 1, 1965
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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eto, Declassified and Approved For Release @50-Yr 2014/01/06 : CIA-RDP73-00475R000102120002-0
DEPART R E P Nift El NN TT E OF
F W SI TT HA T PE E NEWSRMI S O
S LETTERN
NOVEMBER 1965
MUTUAL BENEFIT
An Ambassador Meets With Businessmen
Under a highly successful pro-
gram established by the Business
Council for International Under-
standing (BCIU) in cooperation with
the State Department, James D.
Bell, Ambassador to Malaysia,
conferred last month in New York
City with several top U.S. business-
men and bankers with commercial
interests overseas, especially in
Southeast Asia.
Scores of Ambassadors and other
senior officers of the Foreign
Service, USIA and AID have parti-
cipated in the flourishing BCIU
activity in the last few years.
(See News Letter, June, 1963.)
Their schedules were so arrang-
ed when they were in this country
on home leave or for consulta-
tions that BCIU could set up a
series of conferences for them
with leading industrialists and fi-
nanciers.
Thus officials of participating
companies have had the oppor-
tunity to discuss their objectives
and problems in the country to
which an officer was assigned, tc
learn from him something of the
embassy's objectives and prob-
lems in that country, and to es-
tablish or strengthen a relation-
ship of cooperative concern and
effort.
Ambassador Bell also took part
in the program last year, when he
conferred with officials of four
major U.S. companies. Last month,
he met separately in New York
with officials of Chase Manhattan
Bank, Standard Oil Co. (N.J.),
American Export-I sbrand tsen
Lines, Inc., Morgan Guaranty Trust
Co. of N.Y., General Motors Over-
seas Corp., First National City
Bank, International Telephone &
Telegraph Corp., and Pan Ameri-
can Airways. Ambassador Bell met
additionally with officials of Care,
Inc.
The benefits derived from the
BCIU consultation program by
Government and business are ap-
parent in the wide participation of
both in the last two years.
This activity trebled in 1963, and
again doubled in 1964, when more
than 50 ambassadors and 100 sen-
ior embassy counselors took part
in it. They had an aggregate of about
1,5 0 0 consultation appointments
with officers of nearly 300 indivi-
dual companies. And this year's
program is shaping up as the big-
gest yet.
Business Sabbatical
A new program, "Business
Sabbaticals for U.S. Diplomats,"
has been 'established by the
Business Council for Interna-
tional Understanding (BCIU) in
cooperation with the Depart-
ment.
Under this pilot program,
senior Foreign Service officers
will be detailed periodically to
BCIU on detached duty for six
to eight months. They will spend
about a month apiece with a
series of large companies.
Already taking part in the
program is Robert G. Cleve-
land, whose most recent over-
seas assignment was as Eco-
FIRST APPOINTMENT?John Nabberton, Executive Director of the Business Council forInter- nnrr,ic
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11 I 1 I
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WORKING LUNCHEON--Ambassador Bell, left center, lunches with ex-
ecutives of the Standard Oil Co. (N. J.). From center foreground,
clockwise around the table: back to camera, R.D. McDaniel, Esso
Standard Eastern, Inc.; J.S. McClendon, Esso Exploration, Inc.;"
W.F. Spath, Vice President (Marketing) and member of the Board
of Directors of Esso Standard Eastern, Inc.; Ambassador Bell; J.V.
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Pickering, President and member of the Board of Esso Standard
Eastern, Inc.; L.W. Finlay, Manager, Government Relations De-
partment of Standard Oil (N.J.); T.H. Tonnessen, Regional Coor-
dinator, Southeast Asia, Esso Standard Eastern; and M.E.J. 0'
Loughlin, Manager, Manufacturing Coordination Department of Es-
so Standard Eastern, Inc. The luncheon was held on October 4.
PERSON-TO-PERSON?Ambassador Bell confers with Christian Her-
ter, Jr., Government Relations Manager, Socony Mobil Oil Company.
PRIVATE TALK?Ambassador Bell chats with Frank J. Weiss, Man-
aging Director. Foreign Distributors Division, General Motors.
THEIR SUBJECT: SHIPPING--Ambassador Bell and Admiral John M.
Will, Board Chairman, American Export-Isbrandtsen Lines, Inc.
WITH AIRLINE EXECUTIVE?Ambassador Bell and John Leslie,
Vice President of Pan-American World Airways, enjoy a long talk.
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Declassified and Approved For Release @ 50-Yr 2014/01/06 CIA-RDP73-00475R000102120002-0 _
BCIU not only brings Washington to business,
but business to Washington as well. In courses
given five times a year at the American
University, key executives of U.S. companies
learn the art of working with people of other
lands . . .
SCHOOL FOR
BUSINESS
AMBASSADORS
An American businessman in Southeast
Asia was showing a local visitor through
his office. The visitor pointed to the air
conditioner and said, "I'm sorry to see
this example of selfishness. You suck in
the cool air from outside for your com-
fort and leave the rest of us only the hot
air to breathe."
Another American executive, arriving
in a different part of the world and not
trusting his command of the language,
used an interpreter to make an introduc-
tory talk to his staff. He was coldly re-
ceived and learned his mistake later: to
speak English was considered the hall-
mark of an educated man, and by imput-
ing lack of comprehension to his listeners
he had insulted them.
Questions, problems, and misunder-
standings such as these are faced daily
by representatives of some 3,300 Ameri-
can companies doing business overseas.
They find that their words and actions
often don't mean what they do at home.
They discover that different rules for
business and social conduct must be
learned, and that they must recognize and
overcome many hidden barriers in order
to communicate with the people around
them. The difficulties they face often
seem trivial, but the cost in time, effort,
and money can be high.
As international business has grown,
so has management's awareness of the
importance not only of picking the right
man for the job but of giving him the nec-
essary training for his assignment. Some
companies with large international inter-
ests have had their own programs of ori-
entation, but most have depended on ex-
perience as the teacher. Both approaches
are expensive. The cost of replacing a
man who fails in his new assignment is
high. The business loss involved in such
a failure is impossible to estimate. A
wife's contribution to her husband's suc-
cess abroad can also be crucial.
To help solve this complex problem,
a group of United States corporations en-
gaged in world trade (including Jersey
Standard) set up a new kind of training
course in 1958 open to all executives in-
volved in international operations. The
organization, supported by more than fif-
ty companies, is the nonprofit Business
Council for International Understanding,
and its educational program is conducted
at American University's School of In-
ternational Service in Washington, D.C.
The four-week course, offered five times
a year, is private industry's school for for-
eign service, somewhat comparable to the
State Department's Foreign Service Insti-
tute for government personnel. So far,
671 executives and wives from eighty-five
companies have graduated and are sta-
tioned in sixty-six countries around the
world. The men range from technical spe-
cialists to managing directors of overseas
operations. Some are home-office man-
agers with international responsibilities;
others are foreign nationals employed by
United States corporations. Altogether,
they represent a cross-section of Ameri-
can industry?oil, steel and rubber, food
and soft drinks, clothing, aluminum and
copper, pharmaceuticals and chemicals,
banking, and many others. Most of the
wives attend a related one-week seminar
in international living, and an increasing
Reprinted from
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Published by
Standard Oil Co. (N. J.)
number of them take the entire course.
There is evidence to show that BCIU
graduates are doing a better job than
those who jet away unprepared to distant
posts. Companies are even bringing back
old hands who have spent fifteen or
twenty years abroad in order to update
their knowledge of world affairs and
equip them with the newest techniques in
cross-cultural communications. In Wash-
ington they study the history and customs
of different civilizations; they analyze
current social, political, and economic
trends around the globe. Both husbands
and wives devote more than a week to
specific problems of the areas to which
they are assigned. Specialists trained in
those areas test them with probing ques-
tions about the United States that they
are likely to be asked overseas, so that
they will be prepared to deal with both
friendly and hostile critics abroad.
Language study is an important part of
the program, and participants are offered
two or more weeks of intensive work in
any required tongue before a regular ses-
sion begins. Conversational skill is the
objective, and instructors native to each
language are employed. It is recognized
that every language reflects the culture
from which it springs, and that an under-
standing of another man's language is an
important step in understanding his way
of thinking.
There are seldom more than two or
three students in each language class,
which meets four hours a day, five days
a week, for as long as the participant
chooses. Additional hours are spent in the
university's language laboratory with its
electronic teaching aids. Tape recorders
are used for after-hours drill. How much
can be learned in a few weeks depends on
individual aptitude, but even students
starting from scratch find that they can
lay a solid foundation for further practice
and training abroad. Several graduates
have reported that within six months to a
year overseas they are able to conduct all
business in the local language.
The birth of the BCIU goes back to a
White House conference in 1955, when
President Eisenhower called in a group
of business leaders to discuss what might
be done to increase understanding of free
enterprise around the world. Among
other things, it was agreed that advance
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preparation for executives going abroad
could help them do a better job for both
their companies and their country. It be-
came evident, however, that facilities for
such training hardly existed, particularly
in a form suited to mature men with a
limited time to cover a broad range of
subjects. The BCIU chose Dr. Harold M.
Randall, an Iowa-born educator and for-
mer career diplomat, to direct its Train-
ing Course for International Executives.
His deputy is John S. Walter, a former
Jersey Standard executive. Washington
was picked as the location in order to
draw on the faculties of the six universi-
ties in the area plus the Foreign Service
Institute, other government agencies, and
the staffs of foreign embassies. Several
days are devoted to studying the organi-
zation and working methods of various
departments and agencies of the federal
government, especially those involved
in foreign affairs. Participants visit the
White House and Capitol Hill and are
briefed by members of Congressional
committees and officers of the State De-
partment, AID, and the USIA.
Once installed in their Washington ho-
tel rooms, the BCIU students, whose
ages range from the thirties to the sixties,
are in for a busy time. They have already
received an armload of books for ad-
vance reading. They will hear some fifty
different lecturers?anthropologists, soci-
ologists, historians, linguists, information
and public opinion specialists, and pro-
fessors of art, literature, and music.
A basic aim of the course is to prepare
the international executive and his wife
for "culture shock." This term sums up
the package of miseries?disturbing as
weightlessness in outer space?that afflicts
an individual transplanted to a new en-
vironment. People who have lived abroad
say that it occurs when their own behav-
ior and manners?which they have always
assumed to be more or less universal?
turn out to be only local customs, and
they find that others take an entirely dif-
ferent view of what is "normal behavior."
The result can be a breakdown in per-
sonal relations in the new culture, and
frustration and failure in both business
and social life.
Course lecturers cite many examples
of cultural differences that affect the con-
duct of business abroad. They point out
that in many parts of the world Ameri-
cans must adjust to a new tempo in busi-
ness negotiations. They must adopt a
more formal approach than they are used
to at home. In the Orient, for example,
lengthy conversations over tea usually
precede important business transactions.
Any subject may be discussed so long as
it has nothing to do with the business at
hand. The foreigner who loses patience
runs the risk of failure.
A woman lecturer, with long experi-
ence abroad, made a similar point while
talking recently to a group of wives. She
explained that, when shopping in Asian
countries for a piece of furniture or a
painting, the direct approach is usually
inadvisable. A shopkeeper will probably
not discuss price until perhaps the second
or third visit to his shop. He must grow
to like the prospective purchaser before
he will sell her any item of real value.
Another problem for an overseas
American is the different concept of time
that exists in many other cultures. In
some regions promptness is the rule in
keeping appointments, but in other areas
to arrive on the dot is looked upon as
rude and inconsiderate.
Students learn that in a number of
countries a great deal of deference is paid
to age and rank in business organizations.
American junior executives, who are used
to expressing their opinions frankly to
the boss, often find themselves in hot
water through lack of tact in dealing with
older men abroad.
Even the distance at which people
stand from one another while engaged in
conversation can be a problem. A For-
eign Service linguist explains that an
American or an Englishman is accus-
tomed to a face-to-face talking distance
of about arm's length, or approximately
thirty inches. Latins, on the other hand,
like to discuss things at a range of about
eighteen inches. When living in the other
man's country, therefore, it is necessary
to adjust to his "invisible boundary."
The BCIU seminar for wives is di-
rected by Dr. Esther Cole Franklin,
associate professor of international re-
lations at American University. Her
course includes specific, practical infor-
mation on housing, clothing needs, health
facilities, schools, and other subjects that
will make it easier for a woman to run a
Business' Own "foreign service institute"
At the American University, Washington, D. C.
SESSION 34
SESSION 35
SESSION 36
SESSION 37
SESSION 38
Jan. 17?Feb. 11, 1966
Mar. 7?Apr. 1, 1966
May 9?June 3, 1966
Sep. 19?Oct. 14, 1966
Nov. 14?Dec. 10, 1966
home in a new country. The wives learn
the status of women in the area where
they will live. They are told that in one
country a servant customarily receives a
month's pay as a Christmas bonus. In an-
other the labor laws make it difficult to
discharge a servant. Opportunities for
community service are outlined, and
many alumnae of the course are abroad
today teaching English, cooking, sewing,
and nursing, or engaging in other types
of voluntary welfare work.
Social pitfalls are explained. In certain
Oriental countries it is risky to admire
any object too enthusiastically in a home
that one visits, because the host will feel
compelled to give it to his guest. In some
countries a wife is expected to know noth-
ing of politics or business, while in others
she will be asked penetrating questions
about the American system.
The overseas wife is warned that as an
American woman abroad she will be
watched and criticized, and her mistakes
will seldom be overlooked or forgotten.
"There have been many charming and
discreet American women in Rangoon,"
Dr. Franklin says, "but the one they have
never forgotten there is a young creature
who, some years ago, wore Bermuda
shorts on a visit to the bank. She is the
one they still talk about."
The course teaches that, for better or
worse, Americans abroad are a highly
visible minority wherever they go. The
international executive in his foreign post
is looked upon by most local people as an
American first and a businessman second.
He is judged and measured, not by the
standards he has been accustomed to, but
by standards that are meaningful to peo-
ple with different yardsticks of conduct.
This is inevitable in a world that is 95 per
cent non-American, 70 per cent non-
white, and 65 per cent non-Christian.
As Fred C. Foy, chairman of BCIU
and head of the Koppers Company, has
said, there are nearly a billion people in
the uncommitted and developing nations
who are potential friends and customers
for American enterprise. Our businessmen
abroad are working hard to win them.
How are they doing? Better all the
time, it seems. A recent check of BCIU
graduates indicates that fewer than one
per cent have failed and been brought
back from their overseas assignments. ?
INQUIRIES ON THESE AND
OTHER BCIU PROGRAMS
John Habberton, Executive Director
BCIU 420 Lexington Avenue, New York 10017
212 MU 6-8696
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BCIU420 LEXINGTON AVENUE
NEW YORK. N. Y. 10017
Adm. William F. Raborn
Central Intelligence Agency
Langley, Va.
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