In business you may face many situations that appear without any order. But for many of them  you can prepare in advance. One of them is the cultural diversity in business negotiations. If we know, what we need to know about our counterpart from the other part of the world  - we say that we are cultural intelligent. What is the basic model of the cultural intelligence, the sub-category of the competitive intelligence?

Cultural intelligence is not so new topic, but it becomes more and more important, especially in the last ten years, when the global trade rules changed radically.

Let's look at the four basic components of CQ:

1) The motivation: We must be interested in the environment in which we need to develop our business. If we know that the best suppliers of the exotic wood species are from Cameroon, it is necessary to know the local way of life. It is not only the automatic learning of facts.  Focus on three subfolders of the motivation - intrinsic motivation (what you personally get from the various situations in international relations), extrinsic motivation (what your earn from the knowledge of cultural differences) and self-sufficiency.

2) The Knowledge: The understanding of the laws and cultural diversity requires either access to unique sources of information that will give us a good basis for the first meeting with potential business partner, or invest in education in the diplomatic sphere, or hire experienced mentors. The knowledge component is divided into: cultural systems and cultural norms values.

3) The Strategy: Be careful now. Here we come to the negotiating table. Foreign cultural environment will make your business tasks much more difficult. You control your thoughts, but you must also predict how you counterparts think. One distraction can thwart your intentions. A very interesting example was the visit of a Western businessman in an unnamed Arab country. His business partner was asked, "Can I eat in the restaurants something normal?" And again, this division components: awareness, planning and control.

4) The action: Appropriate verbal and nonverbal changing approaches require a hard knowledge of the firm's cultural environment. We know the etiquette, rules, and often we act confidently. Subfolders: verbal action, verbal action and speech act.

For example: Just to think, how the Japanese businessmen behave at the European conferences. They show the respect for the first moment. This is never offensive. On the contrary. If the European or American go to the meetings in Tokyo, they rarely know about the need of bilingual business cards. And this is only the start.