"You have to create trust to enter into dialogue."
The Region Asia South / Pacific unites a very large number of different cultures. In how far is this a challenge for your daily work?
South Asia is a very diverse conglomeration of countries. Indonesia has got the largest number of Muslims. Thailand is the second-largest Buddhist country after China. By inhabitants, the Philippines is one of the world's largest Christian countries. Every country has got its own religious background. Some of them also have a history of communist influence. There is no common currency, no common language, and the language families are hardly related. It is only natural that the interaction between these countries throws up problems and misunderstandings every now and then.
What can such misunderstandings look like?
Imagine a Japanese project planner and a Burmese distributor sitting at a table, joined by a Chinese EPC contractor and somebody from Singapore. You can't find the words to achieve a result. I always find it very interesting to see how different cultures deal with such situations. Some have a tendency to avoid conflict, others show a lot of respect for hierarchies. Someone laughing doesn't automatically indicate humour. It can also mean they are trying to avoid giving an answer or that they don't agree.
Could you give us an example of such a situation?
At an event attended by colleagues from the entire Region, the highly-qualified German colleague presenting kept asking: Are there any questions? What can I help you with? We later noticed that the participants had not understood anything but had not asked any questions either. It became apparent that participants would not dream of asking a question in a group of people they don't know. This is not only a matter of language, it is also about respecting hierarchy. It is a typical characteristic in South Asia to wait before speaking.
How do you solve such situations?
First of all, you have to create trust, so people are ready to enter into dialogue and ask questions. This means I have to create an environment in which people feel safe and trust each other. For instance, I may split presentations and training courses into separate events for different countries. Although this takes more time, it will be more effective. Once people feel this immensely important trust, we can later get together in larger groups again.
South Asia is not only culturally diverse, it also covers a very large geographic area.
Let's take a look at Indonesia, a country of about the same width as Europe that is made up of 18,000 islands. This is not to be underestimated regarding logistics and travelling, for example. A flight from Frankfurt to Paris seems easy in comparison.
What do you currently see as the biggest challenge as the Regional Executive Officer of this Region?
Developing managers and talents are very important points. We are experiencing extreme competition in attracting top talents, especially in the engineering sector. We are putting a lot of work into further developing our own quality and that of our employees, especially regarding leadership: How to deal with people, how to get the most out of them – in a positive sense. We want talents to feel they are given the opportunity to develop with us, that they are understood and needed. Further developing our corporate culture is also important to me: I would like managers to gain an awareness of how to lead to their employees in such a way that they will take initiatives as much as possible rather than simply carrying out instructions.
Imagine, you were to return from Singapore to live in Germany – what would you miss?
The heat and the sunny days are something I would definitely miss, and the structure and certain processes that work like clockwork over here. In Germany, friends have told me: Take a taxi at night, the urban train is too dangerous. That's something I don't even have to think about in Singapore. I like living here, not only from a professional but also from a private point of view.
