…” The most well prepared and pedagogic 

training I have ever attended ”

                    Per-Olof Högnelid  

                            (Project Manager, Ericsson. China )

  "Dear Hans,  I wanted to take this opportunity and sincerely

thank you for the great workshop you organized and

delivered for Oerlikon in November 2007.

   This Cross-Cultural Communication program was extremely

beneficial to all my Chinese and Western colleagues. It helped

us to develop a better understanding of each other’s culture

and comprehend why things are the way they are.

   The design of your workshop and the way you presented

the different topics was very professional and appealing at

the same time. The mix of exercise, discussions and

group activities allowed everybody to get involved

and learn in a fun and inspiring way.

  The possibility to exchange experiences and receive

recommendations gave me tremendous insights

into the Chinese way of thinking. I am taking

away lots of valuable lessons on how to

collaborate with people from other

cultural backgrounds.

  Therefore, I highly recommend this course to anyone

who wants to increase their cultural awareness and

understanding in order to work together

with people in a more effective way.

   Thank you again for helping Oerlikon to bring Chinese

and Western employees closer together. "

                   Stefan Buckenmaier

      " I would like to take this opportunity to

express mu appreciation for delivering this

wonderful Cross-Culture training. It is

one of the most fruitful trainings I

have ever had ! 

This training enhances our skills and therefore

our future employment [promotion] opportunities.

Having cross-cultural awareness gives us a

competitive edge over others, especially

when working in international companies. 

I strongly recommend to any company confronting

any kind of "cross-Culture" challenges to

attend this training. The payback is more

than you can imagine ! "

                              Gao Feng

                                          ( Vice President, IKEA Investment, China),

...” As I have been living in China for more than 6 years and

participated in a number of  cross-cultural trainings before

while working for the EU, I was initially unsure whether

Cross-Ways could bring this complex topic in an

interesting and useful way for IKEA.

   I must however underline that I was very impressed with

their work. Using a balanced mixture of games, reflective

discussions and theoretic intermezzos, they managed

to captivate the groups for a full two days.

   As facilitators from two very different cultural backgrounds,

Hans and Inn are the living example of how cultural diversity

can become an asset and not only enrich one’s personal life

but also create a synergy which is essential to business

success for any company operating in a foreign

culture. “

   I was especially appreciative of their deep understanding of

Chinese culture and applications on the IKEA ways of

working. This combination turned this training into a

very big success and a basis for better cooperation

among our co-workers.

   For these reasons I would strongly recommend any

company facing cross-cultural challenges to

consider this course. It will be time well

spent ! "

                      Ilka Baert  

                                (Environmental Manger, KEA Trading,

                                                            Qiangdao Rep Office, China )

  " I went to this course because my colleagues had recommended it  –

and it was really even much better than I expected ! 

    Hans and Inn are different kind of teachers than one normally meet

in these kind of training sessions.

    I was positively surprised how well they were linked to each other,

as well how easily they “gripped” the  whole group into discussion

and participation.

   Even those silent Chinese who normally are shy in company meetings

 – now with the exercises we had – they had opinions and they also

brought up issues to Westerners which I have never even thought

about.  And they had really good opinions !

  The two days were full of exercises and team discussions – no beamer,

no transparencies, no boring theories – instead of that – full  of action,

good people participation and opinions.

  I believe that with this course, people can learn valuable behaviour

from each other, because Hans and Inn establish a special link

between the two cultures."

                              Marko Laurila

                                               ( Production Manager, Wärtsilä )

      " Before the workshop, I worried that this sort of cross-

cultural training were more for Westerners to understand

Chinese behaviors. However, the time and efforts were

well balanced between letting the Chinese colleagues

understand the Western culture and letting the

Westerners understand Chinese culture.

     The effect was not to just let the Westerners and Chinese

 learn how to understand, tolerate and compromise with

each other, but it focused on how to be excellent, to get

the job done more effectively and efficiently and with

high quality in a cross-cultural environment.

   I need to mention that Hans is an outstanding

professional trainer. His sound knowledge

appropriate wording, humorous acting

skills and body language really 

attracted the minds of all

the participants. " 

             Yumin Qian 

                 (Head of Oerlikon Optics, China)

  " I really valued Cross-Ways training since it focused on really

experiencing the cultural differences, and also, the similarities.

   The course encouraged a very good exchange of views between

the Chinese and Western participants, giving an insight in the

feelings and reasons behind certain behaviors, on both the

Chinese and the Western side.

  Additionally, the training gave feasible and very concrete

proposals how to act in Eastern-Western cross-cultural

environments.

   The training has been very valuable for me personally in my

situation of being a manager in China for Chinese employees.

It also gave concrete inputs on how my Chinese organization

needs to interact with our partners in Europe to get to a

better and more efficient daily cooperation with fewer

misunderstandings.

   I have recommended this course to my European colleagues,

including managers and technical staff and encouraged them

to come over and join the next training session in China

together with their Chinese counterparts, because I

am sure it will improve our daily work clearly. "

              Elke Bush

                  (Director, Core Network China R & D )

...."We had two days of great fun and the way the training was

performed secured that all of us will remember and practice

the new learning every day.

   I can highly recommend Cross-Ways’  “The Skills of Cross-

Cultural Communication” program to any organization, and

I can guarantee that your mindset will be changed forever

in a very positive way. "

                   Gösta Seuranen

                      (Quality Manager -

                            China Sourcing, Tetra Pak,  China )

   " This kind of training is something everyone in the whole

world should attend to, as it will really help us to

understand each other.

        I can highly recommend this course !  " 

Hanna Wallenström

(Helpdesk Manager – IKEA IT Japan)

* ( More Recommendation Letters - and full transcripts of above references - are available upon request )