The 1st foreign startups have been welcomed in the regional incubators and for the St Valentine’s day, they were all invited by Tarmac to meet eachover and exchange on intercultural challenges during a networking lunch.
Coming from Russia, Argentina, Turkey, Czech republic or Latvia, they are incubated as well in Savoie Technolac than in Tarmac, ? or Boost-in-Lyon, and were all enthousiastic to present their activities (and explore some future partnerships !), but also talk about theirs countries, and discover the mistunderstandings that can come from cultural differences, with the testimony of Antoine Kevorkian, founder and CEO of Teem Photonics, who accepted to share his international experience.
Teem Photonics is a french international company, with American investors, and an international board, that became the world leader in sub-ns passively Q-switched microlasers for industrial use. Antoine Kevorkian presented in a few anecdotes some concrete examples of intercultural challenges, in the customer relationships, but also in the investors relationships or in the team management. A daily challenge to understand the different angles of sees, to decode the nonverbal messages and unexpressed expectations, but a real opportunity of efficiency.
And it is scientifically proved that an heterogen group will always be more performant to solve complexe problems than an homogen expert group …
And the success of Teem Photonics on a mondial market is a perfect example that you can succeed internationally whereever you are incorporated. As Antoine Kevorkian called to mind, you must incoporate … where you want to live !
Cedric Perres, CEO of Sames Kremlin (another international company and the 1st to be created on inovallée 44 years ago) and President of inovallee, to conclude : « when you work with other cultures, listen, observe, and try to react as they do and as they expect you to do ! » …