African customers, African partners PM Zone: Foreign Customers

PM Zone: Foreign Customers
African customers,
African partners
About me:
• Project management
consultant.
• More than 8 years in IT.
• Worked both for large and
small companies.
• Currently working as Agile
Coach in EPAM.
AlexLuts
www.linkedin.com/in/aluts
…also 5 years of classes in KNURE for
foreign (mostly African) students
A long time ago while working with a
company far, far away…
…had a project devoted to creating a
system for real-time monitoring of cargo
delivery…
…and the system was implemented all over
the galaxy…
Travel map of
Team Leader,
Vitaly Vystavnoy
What is the
mentality of
African partners?
Open like Slavic
people…
But more
positive
Value wealth
and status,
but also value
good deeds and
relationships
…and focused more on business, sales
and management, than exact sciences
..but consider foreigners as gurus in
exact sciences
When working,
have two
extremes
Either running 100 miles each time
instead of inventing a bicycle once…
…or some
risky lifehacking or
cheating
Not really punctual, sometimes
unreliable
How to deal with them?
Be open, positive and respect them to
build strong relationships
Don’t neglect
business style and
status stuff
Build a working management system
for your collaboration
Explain things from a position of
profit and good relationships
When working with
the team, identify
leader to delegate
remote management
work, if needed
Questions?