Who Should Attend ?

Company managers and staff working and dealing with the Madagascans

Benefits of Attendance

The aim of this seminar is to significantly improve the participants’ effectiveness in their professional relationships with the Madagascans, enabling them to be operational right from the start.

At the end of this training, participants will have acquired insights and techniques to to:

• Be aware of their own cultural baggage
• Fully understand Madagascan context and culture
• Analyse possible situations in which misunderstandings may arise and identify ways of communicating
• Reduce stress and misunderstandings
• Decipher and understand Madagascan decision-making and negotiation processes

Training Approach

Programme Outline

Module 1 : Understanding cultural differences

1. Intercultural awareness, the key to success in international business

• Taking stock of one's own cultural baggage
• The basics of effective intercultural management
• Identifying and going beyond cultural stereotypes

2. Key aspects of Madagascan culture

• An island state at the intersection of the Indian and African regions
• A young, multiethnic population
• The “plateaux” and the “coastal strips”
• The impact of French colonisation
• An economy in need of reconstruction
• A society battling with poverty

3. The impact of values and behaviour patterns on professional dealings and relationships

• The fihavanana or the “pact of social belonging”
• The importance of ethnic origin and lineage
• A cosmogonic view of time
• Razana or the cult of the ancestors
• Social standing based on age, status and gender
• The family and the community: an all-important collective focus

4. The Madagascan corporate world

• The influence of traditional values on business
• A clear hierarchy
• Unemployment as a key factor
• The role of the state and the authorities
• Professional relationships

Module 2 : Succeeding in work with the Madagascans

1. Effective communication with the Madagascans

• Madagascan, French and twenty dialects
• Deciphering non-verbal communication and ethnic subtleties
• Communication styles and methods

2. Adapting your working methods

• Effective management: giving recognition and encouraging responsibility
• Forging a bond: firasan-kina
• Avoiding pitfalls: the moramora or the tendency to choose the option requiring the least effort
• Getting everyone involved: a sense of effort, reward and commitment

3. Successful meetings and negotiations with the Madagascans

• Lahatra and anjara: getting the most from fate and luck
• Identifying decision-makers
• Time and deadline management
• Attitudes to contracts and their implications

4. Final handy tips

• Caution, patience and humility
• Protocol and etiquette
• Social standards, gifts, business cards, dress code, etc
• Sensitive subjects: politics, history, religion
• Humour: a double-edged sword