Rating: 
Summary: A first glimpse at some of our cultural differences.
Review: May this book trigger your interest and curiosity further on the human species. How fortunate we are to be different ! At a time in history when the word 'globalisation' has become an evidence, let us all realize how much we have to loose by unifying or not our cultures. Do we really have to have the same burger chain everywhere ? Maybe not. Does is make sense for us to speak a common language ? Yes of course, as long as the other languages remain. One currency unit ? One clothing style ? One operating system ? Miles or kilometers ? Can these open a dialogue ?Let's not forget where we come from and how we became the way we are. Learning about our differences is probably the best way to make the most of them. This book pushes us in the right direction. Enjoy !
Rating: 
Summary: Needs more work and interesting
Review: The authors cover a lot of bases and are very effective in making a reader more sensitive to differences in attitudes and value systems of various persons. Yes, I would say various persons rather than various nations - based on methodology and results of this book. A side note - anecdotal evidence presented in the book shows a lot more differences between the nations researched than the hard data from the authors' research. Only on a few questions national groups of respondents from say Japan and USA have scored positively different (I mean vast majority from one country holds the same view as a small minority from the other). Having 80% of one country respondents support some principle vs. just 55% of the other(which on the graphs included seems like a lot of difference while it is basically still majority here and majority there) does not tell me really much about the way I should approach managers from the 55% country, does it ? (The authors do not express these doubts stressing differences rather than similarities). Even if the latter group responds not 55% but just 33%, thus widening the gap and making potential choices easier, I still need to clarify in a face to face meeting if this particular person belongs to her national group majority or minority because I have a 33% chance that I will approach that person with a wrong pre-conception. On top of this the selection of respondents makes drawing conclusions even harder. As authors say, 75% from each country are managers, 25% are junior people. Why not focus on managers 100% for clarity? As a result we may have here a situation in which here and there some of a variance can be explained by the fact that managers have one attitude, while junior staff another one, while differences between managers from different countries are still smaller than graphs show. In effect, quite surprisingly, for me this is more of an interesting and thought provoking book on different styles and values of people/managers in general, than a practical national-business culture guide, just because the data are so much inconclusive.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Review: The results are in: All of those stereotypes that we've been told to forget are, in fact, true. At least, that's what a survey of 30,000 people from 31 nations suggests. The data paints some familiar pictures: the inflexible German, the vacillating Frenchman and the pushy American. The statistics from the survey support the conclusions reached by authors Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner in the earlier, first edition of this book: Don't base business decisions on the rhetoric that people are the same regardless of race, color or creed. They aren't! Academically organized, dense with anecdotes and, this time, thoroughly documented, Riding the Waves of Culture is entertaining at least, and possibly essential in this global age. We [...] recommend this book to any professional approaching an international management task, or overseeing a business that stretches across regional boundaries.
Rating:
Summary: A real masterpiece
Review: This is a real masterpiese. I recommend it to not only those top mangers in organization, but also to those immigrants who leave their motheland for a new life.
Rating:
Summary: Theory helps make good practice
Review: Unlike many other texts and authors on this subject, Trompenaars has undertaken extensive background and rigorous research. The authors interpret the research in a very practical way making the conclusions generalisable to any manager. A must for today's manager, whether global or dealing with diversity.
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