Howweare and Howthey See Us

“How we are and how they see us” *

* Original title “Cómo somos y cómo nos ven” Translated by Marina D. Crosby. This paper was prepared for a Latin American audience

International Projects in and with Latin America

Marina D. Crosby, President, 2Americas Corp.

© By Marina D. Crosby. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted

without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source.

Abstract

Every project manager with international experience knows

about the peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of working with people

from other countries and cultures. More often than not the

unexpected becomes the norm. (See exhibit 1)

There is a particular stereotype about the Latin American

business style. This view is somewhat based on reality but it

leaves out the reasons behind the behaviors which form it. As we

will see in this paper all the components of this “style” are

consequences of the Latin American environment.

As citizens of this fascinating region we, Latin Americans, do

not always understand why we fail to meet the Western

European or United States’ operating standards. We are not quite

sure if those standards would lead us to success in our own

countries. Nevertheless, our education and the economical and

geopolitical global realities put us in a position to copy those

models.

This work intends to move the veil of stereotypes to allow us to

see what we do well, even better than others, and what we

should change to be better project managers in this ever more

global world.

Exhibit 1: Comic by Caloi

Source www.caloi.com

Introduction

Talking and generalizing about Latin America is like doing the same thing about Europe, as if it was a homogeneous

group. Generalizations are of little value even within the borders on one country. In this paper we will use

generalizations as ways to express some commonly found events and behaviors but not as...