Christine Lagarde Quotes

Directing while overcoming differences of language and culture is a stimulating challenge.

The United States is very good at understanding itself, and very bad at understanding others.

Learn to understand the culture of those that you wish to influence.

Working with Europeans is very difficult. They require endless respect.

When you sit around with a Britisher, he usually gets 80 percent of the deal

... with every Asiatic country where we operate in cooperation with the existing culture, the need for intelligent understanding of that country and its ways of life will be crucial. These nations will very likely not respond to appeals with which we are familiar, and not value rewards which seem to us irresistible. The danger--and it would be fatal to world peace--is that in our ignorance of their cultural values we shall meet in head-on collision and incontinently fall back on the old pattern of imposing our own values by force.

You cannot transpose the U.S. system on Turkey, and the Turkish system on France etc. You have to understand the people and their culture. That's leadership.

More and more, in any company, managers are dealing with different cultures. Companies are going global, but the teams are being divided and scattered all over the planet.

I have a great relationship with the Mexican people.

China is a company of contradictions. Nothing is what it appears to be. We have to be extremely respectful when we go overseas.

No matter how certain I am about some culture or some group of people, my opinions are only as accurate as the amount of time I've spent with them.

The Foreign Office works hard to remind people of local laws and customs as often they can be very different to British law.

I feel like I'm cultured enough to fit into any environment.

I do think that when you're specifically working in a country like South Africa, you have to be able to be aware of the cultural truth of what people are raised in and believe in and how they function within their society.

I think an awful lot of the diplomatic problems that exist in the world come from people assuming that their society is the one with a purchase on truth.

I have my brain switched on and I might be thinking something else but we've come to an arrangement. That sort of play is maybe easier with someone who also thinks that way. But that is not necessarily a national thing, but maybe a little bit of a cultural thing.

The best reason for exposing oneself to foreign ways is to generate a sense of vitality and awareness - an interest in life which can come only when one lives through the shock of contrast and difference.

Acknowledged differences may create mutual respect, but hazy misunderstandings bring forth nothing but prejudice and rejection.

Travelers find virtue in a seeming minority in all other countries, and forget that they have left it in a minority at home.

Splendid to arrive alone in a foreign country and feel the assault of difference. Here they are all along, busy with living; they don't talk or look like me. The rhythm of their day is entirely different; I am foreign.

The ability to solve problems or to create products that are valued within one or more cultural settings.

People have to start talking to know more about other cultures and to understand each other.

I'm a British intern going in. I'm hoping that John will just kind of tackle it from who this person is and what she's about rather than trying to go in on her culture. We need to move a step forward than that.

Being in a multicultural environment in childhood is going to give you intuition, reflexes and instincts. You may acquire basic responsiveness later on, but it's never going to be as spontaneous as when you have been bathing in this environment during childhood.

Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you've got.